Check and Mate
by Cas42
Summary: Politics, Relationships, Love and Shogi. Written for a contest. WARNING: Underneath all the jokes, angst, infrequent swearing, and occasional back handed comment about common tropes found in erotic literature, at the heart of this story is an intimate moment between two consenting adults. Younger eyeballs and those with a prudish disposition... You have been warned
1. Chapter 1

**Check and Mate:**

Shikamaru mechanically continued reading and signing off on the after action reports, ignoring the loud warm up music and the raucous laughter filtering into the tent from outside. Parties just weren't his thing… Especially a blowout to celebrate the end of the Fourth Great war.

Even after he had dismissed them, his squad mates had still tried their best to convince him to join them in the festivities. Ino had practically danced back into the tent, her long blonde hair flowing behind her, giving him a forced, flirtatious wink. "Come with us Shikamaru!" she had teased, the smile beaming through her sorrow and trauma. "The war's over! We won! Surely you can forget the paperwork and live a little!"

Ino had been drowning in her pain. As a practitioner of psychic jutsu, she had constantly needed to shield herself from the death and injuries and horrors of war. She desperately needed an escape from the reality of things dragging her down. Not even the strongest psychic barriers could have withstood the onslaught of the loss of so much life. Her mental defenses had shuddered with every little candle flame of light that had been snuffed out on the battlefield. And then... well...

Ino had always been the social one, she drew her energy from being with others. Talking, laughing... and being admired. There were plenty of single men at the celebration. The last thing she needed right now was to be trapped in a stuffy tent reviewing mountains of forms... and he knew that in his current mood, he wouldn't be very good company. The optimal solution had easily presented itself.

His response to her cajoling was a simple shrug. "Parties are such a drag... Standing around talking to people you barely know and will likely never meet again... you go on, have fun, I'll take care of things here. Maybe when I'm finished I'll stop by."

"Thank you so much!" Ino gave him a quick hug and turned away. "If you want me to save you a dance you'd better hurry up!" she said with more joy than he had heard from her in days. "The boys are just lining up to talk to me!"

A few moments later his best friend Choji's bulk had filled up the entrance. "You have got to see this!" his perpetually hungry teammate had crowed, wiping a strand of drool from his chin. "They have at least thirty whole oxen on a spit! It's like I died and went to barbeque heaven!"

Choji was the kindest person Shikamaru had ever met. They'd been friends forever. He'd personally seen Choji go out of his way to rescue a butterfly trapped in a spider's web. Even though the all violence he had committed was to protect his friends, the war had taken its toll. Choji's normally round smiling face looked drawn and haggard. He needed to recover, build up his chakra. He needed to be reminded that maybe... maybe the world wasn't such a hard place after all. Maybe this war was the exception, not the rule. The problem here was that Choji's loyalty would never allow him to abandon a friend.

"You go on ahead Choji," Shikamaru said with a reassuring grin, briefly looking up from the desk. "I'll wander on through when I get hungry. I just want to finish this up. See you in a couple of minutes."

To tell the truth, he didn't feel much like eating either. As an official liaison to the battalion commander, he had seen more than his fair share of casualties in this fight. Corpses, which on some deep level, were whispering in the back of his skull, darkly muttering that their deaths were his fault.

Shikamaru was a genius. His IQ checked in at over 200. As a student at the Konoha Ninja Academy, the greatest challenge he faced was keeping his eyes open in the monotonously dull classes. He had the reputation of being the laziest boy in school. In reality, nothing could keep his interest. What's the point in studying or even paying attention when the the information was right there at your fingertips. What's the point of putting in extra effort when you only have to answer exactly seven tenths of the questions correctly to pass to the next level? Back in the day he would answer everything correctly in the first half of the term, and then sleep through the second half. It drove the instructors crazy. Shikamaru never seemed to show the slightest amount of enthusiasm in class, but he always managed to keep his grades just high enough to pass by a hair.

Back then the only thing that kept his interest were strategy games, like Go, Renju or Irensei. And then one day, his sensei, worried about his drive and his schoolwork, introduced him to Shogi.

It was love at first sight. When he was playing, the haze of boredom would drop away. The chessboard would become crystal clear, and one by one the moves would play themselves out, tiles rapidly clicking across the board. The possibilities were endless.

After graduation, he had earned a bit of a reputation for himself as a masterful tactician, besting opponents far stronger than himself using sheer wits and foresight. His sensei, Asuma Sarutobi the one who introduced him to the game, would often beam at him with pride.

He triumphed by visualizing everything as a game of shogi. A moment of relative peace was all he needed to picture the tiny little chess masters seated in front of the board he carried around in his noggin. The appearance of the mental shogi players he used as an opponent had changed over the years. In his youth his mental rival looked a little like the third Hokage. Immediately after Asuma sensei had been killed by the Akatsuki, the avatar changed, becoming a duplicate of Shikamaru's old teacher.

He used that image of the game to play out hundreds of possibilities. He used those pieces to plot out the systematic capture and destruction of the Akatsuki responsible. On that board he could test out possibility after possibly, come up with strategy, counter-strategy, and counter-counter-strategy. The inside of Shikamaru's head was usually filled with the metaphorical clicking of Shogi tiles.

But not now.

He finished the action reports, rubbed his hand to clear the cramping, and reached for the next escarpment of paper. He froze at the title. Official count of shinobi killed, wounded or missing in action.

There were many names he recognized on that list. There had been a singularly destructive attack on the Allied headquarters during the war. There had been no survivors.

Both his and Ino's fathers had been adjutants in that building.

Logically, Shikamaru knew there was no fault that could be placed on him. Despite his unindustrious nature, he really tried during the conflict. He couldn't have been everywhere at once. Everyone said he did an excellent job, he was a credit to the Alliance.

His soul screamed at him that he could have done better. The clicking of shogi tiles as he endlessly replayed every movement in every battle in his head, trying to work out the flaws, to fix his mistakes, kept him awake long into the night. The worst moment had occurred a week ago as he was turning in his cot, begging for sleep to come. His brain was once again taunting him, compulsively going over his strategy against the Ten Tails, when the mental image of his chess player looked across the shogi board at his opponent. He found himself staring into a tired, scarred face wearing a goatee... the spitting image of his slain father.

Ever since then, his internal shogi games were played solo. It wasn't as effective. He hadn't been able to plan out a winning strategy since then. For Shikamaru, it was like walking around with one eye closed. Everything felt slightly out of balance. Everything was... off.

It had been more than three weeks since the allied Shinobi force had emerged victorious. After all the ceremonies and memorials, the Five Kage and some of the other higher ups had decided that the entire army needed to celebrate their accomplishment.

He had shed his tears, been to the memorials, and said his goodbyes, but the only thing that really truly helped was droning monotony... keeping his mind distracted with other tasks. With almost steady hands, Shikamaru carefully put the casualty list off to one side. He promised himself he'd take care of it later.

* * *

She would never admit it out loud to anyone, but there was more than one reason why she was constantly checking the shinobi trickling in amongst the bonfires. Of course Gaara's security would be the primary one. Her brother was the Kazekage. A year ago, most of these shinobi were in some state of uneasy truce with her village… the kind of truce where you secretly sharpen your knives and wait for an opening. She was surreptitiously searching every figure, listening to every voice, and scanning every silhouette… diligently looking out for threats… and maybe… just maybe... as the merest touch of an afterthought, casually keeping an eye out for a certain Leaf shinobi. "Temari? Are you listening to me?" Gaara asked in his flat raspy tone.

"Yes... You said 'Blah blah blah... Peace... Blah blah blah... New age of shinobi co-operation... Blah blah blah... Love, harmony and dango for everyone.' Does that about cover it?" She knew for a fact that each of the Five Kage had given a joint order for all of their shinobi to attend, so where was he? Most of the Konoha crowd was mingling on the far side of the clearing, so why wasn't he there with them? Was he off being a lazy bum staring at clouds somewhere?

The Kazekage blinked in surprise. "I didn't say anything about dango."

Kankuro sighed. "Ignore her Gaara, she's just being sarcastic... Again," her other brother said, with a disapproving scowl on his painted face. "What's gotten into you?" he hissed.

The three sand siblings were holding an impromptu conference at the edges of the outdoor space where the feast was being set up. "Nothing's gotten into me!" snapped Temari. "I'm just wondering why we're standing around here wasting all our time and energy patting ourselves on the back like this? Don't we have better things to do? Instead of wasting our time with a party shouldn't we be..." She waved her hands vaguely at the crowd. "Taking action of some sort? Making a defensive plan? Figuring out some way to make this alliance last?"

Her two younger brothers, Gaara and Kankuro shared what could only be described as a 'look'. "There is nothing more important than promoting the brotherhood that we have forged on the battlefield," stated Gaara matter-of-factly.

"Told you she wasn't listening," muttered Kankuro.

"I heard every word you said!" snapped Temari testily.

"Good. You are in complete agreement with our proposition then?" asked Gaara.

"Well... I... That is..." Shit. She had no idea what the hell her uppity little brother was talking about. Geez, make a guy the supreme leader of a village and the power all goes to his head. How do you remind the the Kazekage that yes, even though he is now the leader of your village and you are sworn to give your life protecting him if needs be, you did spend a significant chunk of your childhood changing his poopy diapers and stopping him from eating too much sand, so maybe he can toss some well-deserved respect your way once in a while. Promising herself she would make him pay for this later, she mumbled "What was the question again?"

"As I was saying," said Gaara clearing his throat in a slightly pompous way. "Similar to the trusting alliance we have forged with the Hidden Leaf village over the past three years, it is imperative that we also build closer relationships with other villages and our shinobi brothers."

Temari harrumphed grouchily and eyed a shifty looking Hidden Mist shinobi who brushed past her youngest brother. "And how do you propose we do that? Ask them pretty please to be nice to us now?"

"I happened to overhear that the best way to build closer relationships with other villages was to foment intimacy with shinobi from foreign lands."

Temari's barked a laugh. "Where did you hear that phrase? Did you find an Icha-Icha novel on the battlefield?"

"As a matter of fact, I heard it from the Mizukage herself," Gaara said smugly. "She pulled Baki-sensei to one side during a break in the council of all the Kage and I overheard her whisper that she wanted to..." His eyes bounced back and forth between his stunned siblings. "What? Isn't intimacy an important ingredient to friendship?"

Temari just stared at him, open mouthed. "Um... Gaara?" said Kankuro, taking pity on his younger brother, "I'm pretty sure that when Mei-sama said 'intimacy' she meant... well... she was talking about..." He leaned over and whispered quickly in Gaara's ear.

Gaara had the decency to look embarrassed. "Ah... I see... That is... very different than how I understood the matter." He paused and looked thoughtful, "I will miss our former sensei as he goes off to the Hidden Mist village to live in a state of marital bliss... But, we should not be afraid to follow Baki's example and be willing to try anything to maintain our new found brotherhood."

"Even when you know these so called brothers won't hesitate to turn around and stab you in the back at the earliest opportunity?" growled Temari, eager to avoid explaining to her youngest brother the miles of difference between 'marital bliss' and 'sweaty one night stand'.

Gaara shrugged. "Naruto taught me that kindness and friendship must be freely offered before one can expect it in return."

Temari gave a cursory look around the clearing, pretending to look for Uzumaki. "And where is that loud mouthed idiot hiding? I expected to see him jumping around telling everyone how amazing he is and how he is going to be Hokage."

Gaara frowned. "Naruto... has been sent on an important mission. He won't be here." He held up a hand to stop their questions. "I have been sworn to secrecy. I can say nothing else on the matter."

Kankuro frowned. "So Naruto's not going to be here? Wasn't he supposed to be... you know, one of the main guests?" During the war, Naruto's presence had been one of the larger morale building presences on the battlefield. His strength had unified them, bolstered them, and inspired the allied force to keep on fighting.

Gaara nodded once. "Yes... which is why the rest of us must do our part now. We must show everyone how even though the fighting ended, we will continue to be comrades." He coughed delicately into his hand, studiously avoiding his sister's eyes. "Temari given the... minor issues you have had in the past interacting with certain diplomats, I am sure that there are many other duties you could handle to occupy your time while both Kankuro and I handle the... more ambassadorial side of things. Perhaps you wouldn't mind taking care of a few bureaucratic details?"

Now that wasn't fair. Back when Gaara was still recovering from having the One Tails removed from him, the neighboring Land of Gold made a move to once again annex the northern mountain pass. She had only threatened to dip the ambassador to the Land of Gold in honey and bury him from the waist down in a nest of fire ants… It wasn't like she actually did it! And their troops did pull back from the border, didn't they? "You want me to do paperwork?" snapped Temari.

Gaara gave her a blank look. "I was merely trying to suggest an activity you would be more comfortable with. If you feel up to it, I could give you another assignment. Earlier, I spoke to the Tsuchikage on the matter of strengthening the alliance between our villages. The issue of cooperation and treaties forged through marriage came up in our conversation." Gaara glanced up at his sister. "He was kind enough to suggest several of his eligible grandsons and nephews who would be more than willing to escort you to the..."

"What? No!" snarled Temari. "Did you get sand in your brain? You have to crazy if you think that I would suffer that treacherous little prune of a man to play matchmaker for me!" She turned her head in a huff. "I can only imagine what his grandson is like!"

"I did not specify anything about marriage or that you had to associate with any of them in particular... It was... just a suggestion." Gaara paused and folded his arms. "Although I would like to remind you…" He motioned to both her and Kankuro, "both of you, that the duties you carry out today will help your family and your village in the future."

Temari glowered at him. How dare he pull out that favorite phrase of their father's. Gaara of all people should know what a dirty trick that was. "Gee, that's a great point, I'll think about it," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Good," said Gaara, impervious to the sarcasm. "While you are thinking, do something that will help this newfound alliance grow. That was an order from your Kazekage. Now if you will excuse me, Matsuri said she had an urgently important matter she wanted to discuss me… in private."

"In private?" asked Kankuro, both eyebrows raised. "Woo-hoo! You go Gaara!" He held up a hand for a high five.

Gaara gave his brother a genuinely confused stare. "It's only Matsuri. She's my trusted student. We talk a great deal. I fail to see the need to celebrate such an occurrence." He nodded to them both, dismissing them.

Brother and Sister bowed as he walked away. "This is stupid," griped Temari. "It's nothing but a waste of time. We should be heading back to the village. We've left it under the authority of those idiots on the council for far too long." Her expression darkened. "The Gods only know what they've been plotting while we're away…"

Kankuro shrugged. "Probably the same stuff they plot while we're home… Will you just relax Temari? I think some of what Gaara said makes sense." He shrugged. "What harm can there be in just taking some time off and socializing for a bit?"

"What harm? Did you just ask what harm there could be in associating with our enemies?"

"Former enemies," Kankuro reminded her. "Former… like that Nara twerp you're always hanging out with." He looked around. "Speaking of which, where is he anyway? I was half expecting him to be lurking behind you with that scowl on his face."

It took a good chunk of her shinobi training to turn her startled jump into nonchalant shrug. "Why should I care where that little pain in the butt is hiding?"

"I thought he was a friend of yours."

"Friend? Him?! Ha!"

Kankuro tilted his head slightly. "What? You never hung out with him? Went out to lunch with him? Talked to him?"

"I associated with him because I was ordered to by my Kazekage," she said, frost coating every word.

Kankuro shook his head. "Sometimes I worry about you Sis… So you mean to tell me that after all that time you spent together, you never once thought about trying to get to know him better?"

Temari stiffened ever so slightly. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Her brother sighed. "You know how after a mission, you sometimes... feel the need for a little human company? You just want to remind yourself that you're alive! You want someone next to you, to talk to you." He smiled wistfully. "Sometimes it can get pretty intense, especially after those really nasty missions where you know you're lucky to still be breathing… There was this one time, after a mission, that Maki and I found ourselves trapped in a cave during a sandstorm and..."

"I have been on over a hundred missions," interrupted Temari, not wanting to hear any more of that story, "and I have never once felt the need for 'a little human company' afterwards."

Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Of course you wouldn't, you've got a heart carved out of stone... but that doesn't mean the rest of us don't need to relax and have some fun." He grinned under his purple makeup. "There was this one Hidden Cloud kunoichi who I swear was checking me out earlier."

A wave of hostility for Kankuro rose in her throat. Of course she wouldn't?! How dare her bratty little brother suggest she was the weird one! "She was staring because you were having a conversation with Crow!" Temari barked. "How many grown men do you see around here talking to puppets?"

Kankuro turned up his nose. "There you go again, always assuming the worst about people! Maybe she likes puppets? Even if she doesn't, I'm sure we could work around any little difficulties!"

"I'm sure you just want to work your way around that huge bosom of hers," grumbled Temari. "Trust me little brother, anybody airing out her cleavage like that is most definately not interested in talking to your stupid puppet!"

Kankuro scowled. "I'll have you know... Crow is not stupid! He can be quite charming and witty when he wants to be… unlike some people!" He turned in a huff and walked away.

Temari rubbed her face with one hand. Men! Survive a little war and they instantly start thinking with the wrong head. And another thing... why did those two idiots always assume she was going to be the responsible one! "Oh Temari!" she grumbled under her breath in a passing imitation of Gaara's voice, "Kankuro and I are going to be busy flirting with bimbos, so could you please make sure the whole alliance doesn't come crashing down around our heads by taking care of business? Oh and don't forget to make goo-goo eyes at all our horny former enemies. It's good for the village."

She snorted with disgust. This ridiculous idea of Gaara's... mixing with shinobi from other Hidden Villages in order to ensure peace... The council of elders back home would have a collective stroke if they heard of the Kazekage ordering a Suna shinobi to be... 'friendly' with a shinobi from another village. What was her little brother thinking? They were having enough problems with the clan chieftains of Hidden Sand already. Her brother may be a master at combat, but he was a naive moron when it came to seeing how well-intentioned decisions could be turned against you. Fraternizing with the enemy... who had ever heard of such an... idiotic... thing? Imagine what that would be like...

She stopped guiltily and looked around the party one more time, searching for that telltale slouch and perpetually bored expression. He still wasn't there. She sighed. "Well if my dumb little brother won't listen to reason," she muttered to herself testily, " and insists that I have to go talk to shinobi from other villages, the least I can do is find someone who's sure to agree with me that this is a really stupid idea." She made a note of his teammate, the walking mountain known as Choji queuing up in the line for food and rubbing his hands eagerly. Temari squared her shoulders and started forward. "If that little weasel isn't going to have the common decency to show up here when I'm looking for him," she said fatefully, "I'll just have to hunt him down."

* * *

The party was starting to pick up and he was halfway through the requisitions and expenditures manifest, when the little shogi player in his head gave him a mental nudge and slowly materialized at the board. Thankfully, there wasn't any opponent on the other side this time, just the miniature copy of himself. Little shogi playing Shikamaru set down his bag full of tiles and tapped the side of his nose. There was a familiar aroma filtering through the tent. A hint of jasmine and sandalwood. Shikamaru found himself sitting up straighter, and put his pen down with a click. "And just how long have you been standing there?" he asked in a purposefully disinterested voice.

"Long enough to determine you've lost your edge as a shinobi," Temari chuckled in a throaty contralto. "I had enough time to come up with seventeen ways to assassinate you." He could hear the smirk in her voice. "Some of them were quite creative," she purred.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and pushed away from the desk to face her. "Well, if you're going to kill me, hurry up and do it before I get any deeper into the missing inventory accounts. Making me wade through all of those first is unusually cruel... even for you." While everything about his outward attitude was one of annoyance, in his psyche, the chess master was rubbing his hands with glee and quickly setting up the board.

Temari lounged against one of the tent poles, idly cleaning her fingernails with a kunai, pretending to ignore him. She was from the Hidden Sand village, once a deadly rival, now an ally. She'd taken the time to change out of her battle uniform and into something more like her standard shinobi wear, a short black kimono with a red sash. He'd always wondered whether she preferred the short skirts because she liked the freedom of movement they offered or if she just liked showing off her legs. He never got up the courage to ask though, because along with her very nice legs, Temari had the unnerving reputation of being the cruelest kunoichi in the world.

Physically she was attractive enough. Although if one wanted to be critical you could say she had a few flaws, like her lips being a little on the thin side, her strong jaw, that cruel twist to her mouth, and mostly that way she would squint when she found something you said annoying. It was a squint that said: "The only thing preventing me from killing you right here and now, is that I'm not quite sure where I would hide the body."

All that aside, with her honey blonde hair, her sea green eyes and her athletic figure, she was definitely categorizable as comely, but then again, there were a fair number of other girls one could hypothetically add to a hypothetical list as being pretty before one would reach Temari's name... Not that any of those other girls would want to have a single thing to do with one Shikamaru Nara.

In fact Shikamaru found most women to be... troublesome. At the top of the list, reaching down from on high like some sort of wrathful, demanding goddess was his mother, Yoshino Nara. Oft times it seemed that the moment his mother pushed him out of the womb she immediately started bossing him around. She certainly did that to his father, who appeared to have spent every available moment trying to avoid her. With his father Shikaku constantly engaging in what his mother called 'My good for nothing husband's worthless hobbies' Yoshino's one remaining target was her son. He didn't understand why she just couldn't leave him alone.

Shikamaru thought it might get better once he entered the academy, and indeed his first year teacher, the kindly faced Eriko Fukada, had praised him for a full ten minutes when she asked everyone to practice writing just the vowel sounds of the hiragana alphabet, and instead, he had turned in the whole thing.

She had been slightly perturbed the next day when he decided to stare out the window instead of working on the 'T' series with the rest of the class. After three more days of him napping, drawing, or humming quietly instead of wasting his time practicing something he clearly already knew, she had sent a note home asking to meet with his parents.

As he grew up, it became a noticeable pattern: everyone he knew with two 'X' chromosomes seemed destined to being a pestering annoyance.

Until he met Temari, that is. She was the first girl he met that exceeded being classified as 'merely' an annoyance and actually frightened him almost as much as his mother. First they fought during the chunin exams. Later she saved his life. Fate kept throwing them together time and time again... enough times that he actually began to look forward to their subsequent meetings.

That didn't mean she didn't nag... Temari was the epitome of badgering. To Shikamaru, what made her... tolerable was her personality. Every conversation was a new challenge with her. Her tongue and wit were honed to a razor's edge. Temari lived every minute of her life as if was a sparring match and she was constantly trying to score points. Whenever she was around, she was always harassing, always haranguing him. He had to be constantly on his toes with her or else she'd leave him verbally sprawled in the dust.

"Was there something you wanted?" Shikamaru asked after the silence had gone on long enough. "Or did you just stop by to admire my genius?" On the mental shogi board, a pawn was slid forward. A safe opening gambit.

Her four blonde ponytails rustled as she tossed her head, amused. There was the forest green flash of her eyes as she glanced at him and quickly looked away. "I stopped by because I heard the most amazing rumor... Shikamaru Nara was hard at work." A smile played on her lips. "I simply had to witness this miracle with my own eyes." Her knight hopped out and threatened the pawn, a strong offensive counter. "I was so sure you'd be at the party," she continued teasingly. "Going seemed like a great strategy to get out of doing mountains of paperwork."

And suddenly, there it was… a sickening drop in the hollow of his stomach. Just like that, Shikamaru didn't feel like playing anymore. He didn't feel like he could play anymore. He quickly turned back to the desk. "Yeah... well... it's a drag but... It's my duty." Inside his mind the chess master pushed himself away from the board.

There was a rustle of silk. "It is your duty... But so is going to this ridiculous thing. Your Kage commanded it, as did mine," came her voice from right over his shoulder. Her words gently tickled the fine hairs on his neck. For the briefest moment, he considered putting it off.

But the dead were still watching. From the depths of his mind, he heard his father sigh. He hunched his shoulders over his work. "I don't... Look, I just need to finish this, okay?"

There was a long silence, broken only by the gentle scratching of his pen. Just as he was beginning to wonder if she had left. There was an explosive scrape as she pulled up a chair. "Fine. Where can I start?"

"I don't need your help. I can..." Shikamaru's voice faded away under her glacial stare.

"We are going to tear our way through this bureaucratic nonsense, and then you are going to take me to the party," she said adamantly. Temari glared at Shikamaru until he closed his mouth. "What? I'm not going to be able to find anyone else to go with me if I'm wasting all my time here with you, am I? What are you waiting for? Stop staring at me! Get to work!"


	2. Chapter 2

It was too hot and too loud, just as he predicted. But in a way that was... okay. With so much assaulting his senses, it was difficult to focus, and well, that in itself was a little comforting. It didn't hurt that he had just walked in with an attractive woman on his arm either.

He spotted the other members of his squad in the crowd. Ino chatting away with some broad shouldered Hidden Mist shinobi, and Choji stuffing his face from a tray piled high with delicacies.

Temari nudged him with her elbow. "Well, what do you think?" she yelled in his ear to be heard over the music. Shikamaru just shrugged. There were a group of Hidden Sand village shinobi who kept looking over at them, across the empty dance floor and whispering. "Are you having fun yet?" she yelled again in his ear.

There was a brief jumbled pause in the music as Bee-san, the eight tails jinchuriki hopped up on the low stage and had a quick muted conversation with the leader of the band. There was the brief flash of paper ryo as money changed hands. "All right!" called the MC out over the crowd. "We've got a special guest with us tonight! The Hidden Cloud Village's very own Rap master... Killer Bee!" There was a sparse bout of enthusiastic applause from Bee's teammates.

A funky beat dropped and the jinchuriki began a freestyle rap:

"YEEEEAAAH! Oh tonight is the night for very good party!

"I'm going with all my might 'cause my nature's so naughty,

"Turn it up loud, stand tall and proud,

"'Cause we are all alive!"

"I see all your asses over there leaning on the wall,

"I see you all afraid to dance, scared that you might fall,

"If I die tonight, I'll die knowing I danced hard!

"Come shake that booty! Boogie down! Listen to your bard!

"Yeaah!"

Surprisingly enough, his antics seemed to have some effect. A red haired kunoichi from Kumo detached herself from the crowd around the perimeter, and strode purposefully across the dance floor. A few moments later she reappeared, blushing and dragging a very surprised Kiba Inuzuka behind her. A slow trickle started as people began to summon their courage. Shikamaru saw a blonde flash as Ino pulled the Hidden Mist shinobi out to dance with her.

Killer Bee was beside himself with the reaction he was getting. "Yeah!" he bellowed, leaping off the short stage, landing in a split and popping back up to his feet. "Come on you all! Leave your fear! Get off the wall! I will not, I will not, give damn who is watching me! I will dance, I will dance and liberate the freak in me!" He spun up behind a voluptuous kunoichi who was bending over the drinks table, inspecting the various options. "Come on sexy Momma!" he called into his microphone, and gave her a slap across her rear. "Bring that glorious booty thing, come to Killer Bee. Come on over sexy Momma and get your freak on with me!" He triumphantly turned away from the kunoichi, and began pumping his fist in the air jumping up and down to the beat.

The kunoichi straightened, and the beat abruptly stopped. Everyone stared as a wave of dropped jaws washed over the crowd. "Aww! Come on!" moaned Killer Bee turning to the DJ. "What gives?" The DJ only pointed a shaking finger.

Killer Bee turned. Above the aforementioned 'glorious booty' hung a green coat with the kanji for 'gamble' emblazoned on the back. There was a swirl of blonde ponytails, and Tsunade, Hokage of Konoha, the last remaining member of the legendary Sanin turned to look at him. Her stare of incredulity slowly turned into one of rage. Bee-san bowed his head and held up the microphone. "Hokage-sama, I just want to say one thing." He swallowed nervously. "It was so totally worth it. I regret nothing. Oh Yeahhh!" He used the moment of stunned silence to run away at top speed. A heartbeat later Tsunade took off after him.

The music was more predictable after that, but people kept on packing the dance floor. Temari pulled on Shikamaru's arm, bringing him closer, making sure he could hear. "Do you dance at all?"

Dancing was such a drag. Shikamaru had promised himself he'd never do it again. His usual reaction, whenever his mother, or some other nuisance of a relative asked, was just to stare in stony silence. Still, Temari had just helped him out, so he supposed she at least deserved a response... a witty one. He leaned over, and in his head, attempted a move - knight takes bishop. "Normally, I'd say I'd rather give my right arm to get out of dancing," he said, ignoring her raised eyebrow. "But I'm afraid you'd take me seriously!"

Temari narrowed her eyes and jabbed him with her elbow hard enough to leave a bruise. He winced. That move turned out to be less than optimal. "You idiot!" she complained. "I'm going to go get a drink!"

Shikamaru rubbed his side and pointed. "Would you be so good as to get me one too?"

She stuck out her tongue at him before she turned. "No!"

There was a tap on his shoulder as he watched her sashay away. He found himself looking into the concerned eyes of a Sand shinobi. "Excuse me for asking... but are you and Temari-san... um...on a date?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Oh no!" A moment of most embarrassed confusion rippled through his brain. "Or at least... um... I don't think so."

The Sand Shinobi stared at him with pursed lips. "Well be careful, you don't want to end up like Gorou."

* * *

Temari was eyeing the drinks table with a suspicious eye, trying to decide between something syrupy green and something fizzy neon orange. Unlike the rest of her countrymen, she steered well away from the potent thick black 'Kaff', a distilled beverage made from fermented coffee beans. It was said too much of it could drive men mad. Like most citizens from the Land of Wind, she was half addicted to her morning dose of caffeine, she just couldn't understand why anyone would want to mix it with alcohol.

She took a surreptitious look back at Shikamaru... Only to make sure the little weasel hadn't run off; it would be so like him to decide the party was 'such a drag' and wander away. Not that it would have mattered if he did... everyone was always avoiding her. Hell, she practically expected it by now. Temari had no problems interacting with other shinobi professionally. In fact, being professional was what she excelled at. It's just that once things crossed that line between a professional relationship and a personal one... things got awkward.

Which, of course, was only to be expected.

When you're the daughter of the Kazekage, people treat you with a certain 'arm's length' respect... that's just your default state of being. Being the oldest had been especially challenging after her mother died in childbirth. Back then, everyone else on the staff was terrified to touch baby Gaara, afraid of the monster he carried within him. Her younger brother Kankuro didn't really understand why Mommy wasn't coming back. He toddled everywhere after his big sister 'Te-ma' demanding she do all the things that mama used to. Her father grew harder and harder to find with each passing day. He was still physically there, of course, but Daddy was wearing the cold, hard business mask of the Kazekage more and more. Her father threw himself into his duties, spending long days and longer nights away from the three of them. Her pestering and demands and tears earned her nothing but a cold reproach. "A Suna shinobi controls their emotions and does their duty. Control your emotions. Do your duty," was one of his constant refrains. Since no one else was taking care of them, much of the responsibility for her two younger brothers fell on four year old Temari.

There were some advantages to this, she supposed. She grew up proud. She grew up in charge. She grew up expecting to be able to boss others around. When she began her training to become a kunoichi, she made sure that everyone treated her with the deference and respect deserving of one of her station. So what if she was never invited to play with the other girls, she had more important things to do. So what if there was no one to dry her tears when she woke up in the middle of the night almost calling out for her mother a split second before remembering that she wasn't here anymore... That just made her stronger. So what if more and more people began to avoid her as her youngest brother sank deeper into his One Tail induced psychosis. So what if she didn't have any friends, she didn't need them anyway. What was the point of making friends with someone who would just end up being a rival, an enemy... someone who could hurt you? Little by little, she was changing from a wounded child into the confident, hard edged, warrior princess her father expected of her. By the time she graduated the Suna Academy, she felt like nothing could bother her inside the burnished steel emotional armor she wore just under the top layer of her skin.

Three weeks later, she killed a man for the first time.

There was a group of bandits, raiding villages on the border with Land of Rock. It was a simple little mission. Capture the bandits and bring them back to Suna for interrogation. As her squad surrounded the bandit's camp and demanded their surrender, one of them tried to flee. In the dusk, all Temari saw was a running silhouette. She let loose with a blast from her fan. It was a small gale, just enough to give someone a shove and a tumble.

In the dark she never saw the ravine.

Her squad leader made her go down and retrieve the body. He was young, only a year or two older than she was. His arms and legs were bent at all the wrong angles and his head flopped about loosely on his neck. She dumped him unceremoniously in the ring of firelight. "This is what happens to those who don't surrender!" her squad leader had proclaimed proudly. "He was only trying to flee! If you fight what do you think will happen to you?"

The prisoners all avoided her on the march back home. They stared and pointed and whispered. The rest of her squad was nervous around her as well. They flinched whenever she addressed them. Everyone looked at her differently now… She felt… differently now… now that she was a killer. One moment the boy was alive, the next he was dead… and it was all because of her. The knowledge sat low and heavy in her stomach, a twisting sour ball

After her team made their report to the Kazekage, she lagged behind in the audience chamber. "Father," she asked politely, "May I speak with you for a moment?" The fourth Kazekage's only response was a flat stare. She bowed and tried again. "Kazekage-sama, I have a… matter I would like to discuss with you... in private."

Her father acknowledged her with a curt nod. "There is no need for privacy Temari... anything you wish to say you can say in front of my advisors as well."

Temari ignored the other men as best she could. "Kazekage-sama... I... Wish to report that I... killed… one of the bandits."

He didn't even look up from the papers he was leafing through. "Yes, we heard that in your commander's briefing... What of it?"

Temari didn't quite know what to say to that. Everytime she blinked, she still saw that young bandit's face… his eyes staring at her, accusing her… "I was hoping I could... talk to you about..." Her voice petered out under her father's warning glare.

"A Kazekage's time is more valuable than gold to Suna. It is a serious offence to waste it," he said coldly.

There was a slight cough from Ebizo, one of her father's advisors. "Kazekage-sama... Surely a… momentous occasion such as this deserves some sort of... congratulation? This might be an opportune time to personally share some… sage advice with a young but very talented kunoichi."

Her father stared at her for a very long time. "Very well... Temari... Well done... The duties you carried out today will help your family and your village in the future. You are the perfect model of a Sand Village kunoichi." A warning frown played about the Kazekage's mouth. "Make sure you stay that way." He waved in her general direction. "You are dismissed."

Temari glanced over her shoulder once again. Shikamaru was still there, being accosted by a few of her fellow Hidden Sand shinobi. The first time she had laid eyes on him, she pegged him as a lazy, cowardly, one trick, good for nothing, bum of a shinobi... and she was one hundred percent correct.

Shikamaru looked up and caught her staring. Temari quickly spun around and pretended to be studying the drinks again. The first time they truly met was in battle; they were opponents in the chunin exams. He should have been an easy opponent. He should have been an easy win.

He calmly deflected each of her attacks. Step by step, he measured each and every one of her strikes. Shikamaru had deftly manipulated her each step of the way and entrapped her in his shadow possesion jutsu. And then, just as he should have struck her down and claimed victory... He forfeited the match! She was dumbstruck. Shikamaru just stood there, an apathetic look on his face. "Well, I'm all out of chakra," he drawled. "I've only got another ten seconds left." He shrugged apologetically. "It's too bad, I've already planned out the next two hundred moves... Still if I did win... It would just mean more work." Temari found she didn't know what to make of him. Was he flaunting his victory? Was he being patronizing? Why would he give up a chance to beat her like that? Was he actually that lazy? Did it mean... something else? Over the next few months the memory and uncertainty kept coming back again and again to haunt her.

The next time they met, she had been the one to save him. Shikamaru was caught and all but defeated by a Hidden Sound kunoichi, an opponent she bested easily. Flush with triumph and her superiority once again vindicated, she followed him back to Konoha. Where she learned an interesting fact about him, he had a softer sentimental side.

He felt bad about his failed mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha; he was crushed inside to see his teammates hurt. At first she just wrote him off as a typical weak willed Konoha shinobi. But then... seeing Shikamaru's father questioning whether his son had the strength and resolve to keep being a shinobi... seeing that same harshness heaped upon him as it had been on her... Well... If she weren't the perfect model of a Hidden Sand kunoichi, she might have felt some sympathy for him right then.

Fate kept bumping them into one another. With each encounter, she began to realize that he was... well... nice. No matter what she threw at him, he didn't seem intimidated. He was rather chivalrous, in his own lazy way. Most surprisingly, behind all the sarcasm and bad natured grumbling, he always seemed genuinely pleased to see her. A faint smile ghosted Temari's lips. Again, she would be hard pressed to admit it... but after years of being the ice queen, being the 'cruel' one, being aloof and unapproachable, ruling alone in her chilly palace, it was... a nice feeling.

"Try the purple one," said a rolling baritone. "They make it in this charming little hamlet just a few miles outside of Hidden Stone Village... They say it has... special properties."

She turned around to find a chiseled jaw holding up a leering grin. "Excuse me?" she asked with one eyebrow raised.

The human chin gave a confident toss of his head and flexed his biceps. "It's a rare little vintage brewed specially in the Land of Rock... very difficult to obtain outside our borders. My grandfather donated a case for the celebration... try it."

Temari gave the Hidden Stone shinobi a cool look. "I'm quite able to find something that appeals to me all by myself, thank you very much."

The shinobi leaned forward. "Oh I'm sure," he rumbled. "I'd heard you were a real take charge woman... so strong and self-assured... and yet so very… very lonely."

"You heard wrong," snarled Temari.

The shinobi raised one exquisitely sculpted eyebrow. "Really? The old man is usually so very thorough with the information he gathers... This is a momentous occasion! I shall have to inform the rest of the family that he is slipping in his old age." He gave her a short bow. "Allow me to introduce myself Temari-san. I am Hiraku, grandnephew to the Tsuchikage."

"Why are you pestering me?"

"Pestering? Oh ho ho... no," Hiraku chuckled. "I merely thought to myself... if there was anyone who might appreciate some company this fine celebratory evening... refined company that is..." He gave a casual shrug. "Surely there are better options than that dour little Konoha shinobi, yes?" He waved a vague hand at Shikamaru. "Perhaps you would like to spend some time with a real man instead? I mean look, the simple boy stands right next to a vision of loveliness like yourself, and he doesn't have the courage to ask you to dance?"

"He has plenty of courage!" Temari insisted, forcing herself not to look back at Shikamaru.

"Again... that is not what I hear from my granduncle, " Hikaru said confidently. "A shinobi like him simply doesn't have the... passion to melt the ice around your heart." Temari held herself still as he reached out and curved one arm around her back and tugged her roughly towards him. "Maybe you would like to see if I could provide a thaw?"

And there it was. The stereotypical assumption that all kunoichi were absolutely frigidly chaste until they had taste of 'rough passion'… at which point they would flip into a storm of wantonly promiscuous behavior. What moron decided the Ninja world had to be this way? What happened to romance? If there was one thing that put her into a killing rage...

Temari forced herself to smile. Hikaru returned her grin and leaned forward eagerly proffering his lips. A movement which he abruptly stopped in response to the rough tearing noise of cloth and the sharp prick of a kunai just above his groin. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead as he gave a pained whimper.

Temari let him stand there, frozen in indecision and terror for a few seconds before ducking around to the side of his head. "I think you should limp back to your tent and thank the Gods and your ancestors there is a truce on. If you ever touch me, talk to me, or even look at me again," she said softly and sweetly in his trembling ear, "I'll cut off your balls and proudly wear them as a necklace." Her smile was a little more genuine as she stormed away.

* * *

Shikamaru kept getting distracted by Temari's conversation with the Hidden Stone shinobi. He gave a small sigh as he assessed himself next to Mister Pectorals over there. It was a drag, but there was no way he could physically compete with a specimen like that. This guy looked like he could casually arm wrestle a gorilla. If he hadn't already been half expecting her to wander off with some other shinobi, he might almost be jealous. He turned back to ask the Hidden Sand shinobi to tell him the tale about this mysterious Gorou person, but before Shikamaru could utter a word, Temari stormed right up behind him and grabbed his elbow in a vice-like grip. "Ouch! What gives?" he yelped.

"I am going to dance!" she yelled over the thumping baseline. "And you... are coming with me!" She dragged him to the middle of the dance floor, pushing other people out of the way. Once there she let go of his arm and began to shimmy.

He just stood there as she wildly gyrated around him in circles. He saw Ino flash past in the arms of some shinobi with hugely broad shoulders. "Hey Shikamaru! Nice moves!" she called out giggling. As a matter of fact, they were starting to draw quite the audience, most of them laughing.

"Come on Shikamaru!" Temari yelled, thumping her hip into his. "Dance!" Shikamaru harrumphed, and tried to think himself invisible and ignore the snickering. "Gods," she exclaimed, as one song switched to another, "you really are hopeless at this aren't you?" She pursed her lips as she glared at him. "Do you want to wait this out while I find someone who's at least not too much of a... a... coward to dance when other people are watching?"

Coward. The label he was constantly being harnessed with. Usually he would just shrug it off. Sometimes he would even relish the label. But the way Temari was glaring at him right now, challenging him, hands on hips... Click, click, click. The shogi tiles fell in quick succession on his mental chess board. He held up one finger. "I'll be right back," Shikamaru said to Temari's puzzled frown, pushing his way off the dance floor and up to the DJ station. There was a hurried conversation. Money changed hands.

He returned as the old song was fading out and the new one coming up, only to find a disappointed look on her face. "Congratulations, you weaseled out of it," she grumbled over the drawn out accordion chord. Temari grabbed his hand and started to walk off, "There's no way anyone here will dance to this old..."

Shikamaru's feet were planted firmly. He tugged and she spun. He smiled at the astonished look on her face centimeters from his own as he glided into the first sensuous steps of the traditional Sand Village tango known as the burning sandstorm.

His hand pressed firmly in the small of her back, he guided her through the first three transitions until she recovered from her shock. With a self-satisfied smirk, he dipped Temari low and executed a slow turn, giving her a good chance to see how they were the only ones on the dance floor. There was no sound other than the clack of their heels and the carnal pulsing of the music. Shikamaru ran his fingertips down her flank and pulled Temari upright again. His mouth was creased with determination, but his eyebrow was cocked in a question. With one hand he spun her in slow twirl that ended with his cheek pressed to hers. "That wasn't too much for you was it?" he breathed out in a whisper.

Temari locked her eyes on his and roughly pushed him away. Then, with a slow undulating roll of her hips, she stalked back. Once again Shikamaru caught her hand and pulled her tight. With a challenging grin, Temari slid slightly to one side and molded herself to him, caressing the side of his face with one hand. "Not in the slightest," she murmured.

And with that, the competition was on. Each of them tried to outdo the other with the most outrageously provocative steps they could. He twisted her into a spinning whirl causing her kimono to float up around her thighs, and she countered by seizing him around the back and giving him a long sliding caress down his chest. Shikamaru propped her leg up on his in a high leg wrap and gave her a short turn. Temari, with a broad smile slowly lifted that leg off his thigh, placed it gently on his shoulder in a standing split, and leaned in.

The crescendo culminated in a whirl of twisting legs and rubbing calves. He boosted her up in a small jump and when she came down they spun wide and then back together again, and stopped. Temari was bent back in a low lunge, with one leg coiled tightly around Shikamaru. His forehead was pressed against to hers. Both were breathing heavily. There was an explosion of applause and then the spell was broken.

One moment they were still holding hands while the DJ of the band was calling out for more applause. The next moment Shikamaru heard a drunken voice in the crowd yell, "Be careful! You'll end up like Gorou!"

Temari's beaming smile suddenly went waxy. Shikamaru was about to ask the obvious question, when she gave a quick, almost painful tug on his arm, and pulled him away from the lights and away from the crowd.

* * *

They walked around the camp not saying a word. Several times the little chess player in his head proposed a move, and each time Shikamaru shushed him quietly. He didn't want to break the silence for two reasons: First, she was deep in thought about something, most likely that Gorou comment. It was rare to see Temari shaken like that. He knew she prided herself on being unflappable. He wanted to give her a chance to recover. Secondly, she was still absentmindedly holding on to his hand. He wasn't too sure if she would continue to do so if he nudged her out of her reverie.

They took a sharp right hand turn and headed in the general direction of her tent. Temari shook her head and exhaled. "That was... fun."

Good. She still wanted to play. Shikamaru shrugged and moved up a metaphorical lance. "Eh, I figured... Why embarrass myself just a little bit, when I could go for the grand prize."

Temari flashed him a smile, and more importantly, didn't let go of his hand. "I didn't think anyone outside of the Suna aristocracy knew the burning sandstorm anymore... Where did you learn to dance like that?" Temari asked the cool night air, her face aglow. "The truth now!" she insisted as Shikamaru opened his mouth.

She had seen right through his attempted feint. Goodbye bishop. "My mom made me take dance lessons when I was ten. She said they'd come in handy someday. I was the only boy in a class of fifteen girls," said Shikamaru with an embarrassed flush on his face. "How did you know I was going to make something up?"

Temari smirked. "I have two brothers. I know what boys look like when they lie." She looked him over and started to giggle. "I'm sorry, I just can't get the image of ten year old you in a class full of girls out of my head. I bet that scowl of yours frightened them all away."

Shikamaru made the aforementioned scowl. "Actually... I was annoyingly popular. Everyone wanted to dance with the boy. It was such a drag." She continued giggling. Well that did it, now his pride was at stake. Inside his head, he set up his rook for a suitable counter attack. "It sounds like you had your moments of popularity too... If you don't mind my asking... Who is this Gorou guy?"

He instantly regretted it. Her hand slipped away. Temari hugged herself staring off into the darkness, and for a moment he thought she wasn't going to answer. Then she turned and flashed a too wide, brittle smile. "Gorou? Oh he was just some boy I dated." There was a long pause. "I thought he was the cutest guy in the world once." They walked for a few steps, and she continued in a softer voice. "Do you know how hard it is when your father is the Kazekage, and your brother is a monster? Everyone walks on eggshells around you." Temari studied the stars in the sky. "When Gorou started paying attention to me it was wonderful. When he asked me out on a date I was in heaven... and then when he kissed me goodnight..."

Temari gave a little pained laugh. "He bragged about it to all his friends. How he took the… first kiss of the Kazekage's daughter... like I was nothing more than a prize to be won."

Shikamaru found himself regretting this last foray. He never meant to bring all this up. The shogi master in his head started scrambling for moves to lessen the damage. "So... What happened?" he asked quietly.

Temari sighed. "Oh... a few nights later I knocked him out, stripped him naked, and rolled him around in a patch of dune nettles. Then I hog tied him and left him hanging from the main gateway to the village." She gave Shikamaru a sidelong glance. "He had to spend two weeks in the infirmary, all wrapped up in gauze and ointments. As you can guess... word got around… and I haven't had many dates since." She gave a small nervous giggle. "It's probably for the best. I wouldn't be half the kunoichi I am today if I spent my time being worried about hair, makeup and boys." Temari stopped outside a large tent. "Anyway," she said with forced brightness, "I wanted to thank you. I had a very nice time."

He didn't say anything at first, he just stood there, head tilted to one side, looking at her. Temari was surprised at how much this awkward drawn out pause was affecting her. She must be getting soft. Still, she found herself being unable to stop wondering: What was he thinking? Was he now scared... like everyone else? "It was... nice," Shikamaru admitted with a nod. He scowled thoughtfully and stared up at the stars. There was another brief hesitation on his part before he continued. "Look... I'm sorry to be such a drag... but I'm just wondering... was this supposed to be... you know... a date?"

She hid her surprise well, laughing as if he were telling a joke. "A date? Me? Didn't you hear? Temari of the Sand doesn't go out on 'dates'." He continued looking up into the sky and she felt her smile fade. "Why do you want to know?"

Shikamaru exhaled. "Well, that makes things easier," he muttered and held out his hand to her.

She stared at it a second before squeezing his fingers. "You didn't answer my question... why do you want to know?"

Even though it was dark she still caught the faint tinge of a blush on his cheeks. "I was thinking that you'd be expecting... something... more specific... at the end... if... this was a date." He shrugged. "But you're right, it's less troublesome this way. Have a good night." He turned to go.

Temari gripped his hand tightly, and felt warmth slowly creeping up her cheeks. She made her decision just like that. "You know," she exhaled in the smallest whisper, "if you did... want to kiss me... I... wouldn't mind."


	3. Chapter 3

His head rang with the clatter of tiles as the shogi master bumped the mental board in shock. The question of what it would be like to kiss her had been scratching around his head since they danced the tango together. Then to hear how this Gorou jerk had treated her... well it had sparked some sort of deep-seated protective instinct in him. All he wanted to do was hold her and whisper that he was so sorry in her ear. He might have been tempted to try it too... if he wasn't half convinced she'd clobber him.

And yet... there she was giving him a shyly expectant look. Her eyes were soft, warm and inviting. He stared for a moment and then, nerves all a jangle, he found himself leaning in and giving her a peck on the cheek.

Temari glared at him, with one eyebrow raised. "What the hell was that?"

"I- I'm s-sorry... but I thought you said..." Shikamaru stammered.

"What do I look like, your grandmother?" Temari snapped. "If you're going to kiss me, put some passion into it!"

The shogi board was quickly righted, and a rook laid down with a loud clack. "Well excuse me!" Shikamaru said with an eye roll. "Maybe I'm a little bit concerned I'll get knocked unconscious and stripped naked for my trouble!"

"Ha!" Temari laughed scornfully. "In your dreams!" She folded her arms. "You've never kissed a girl before... have you? You don't have the foggiest idea what you're..."

Shikamaru rocked forward and kissed her. Hard. His initial thought was "I'll show her!" On his little mental shogi board, it was all planned out. First the kiss, and then the casual stroll off into the night... the epitome of cool.

Only... it didn't quite happen that way. Both of Temari's arms slipped around his neck, and she kissed him back just as fiercely. Suddenly his hands were clutching at her back, pulling her towards him, the heat of her body blossoming through his shirt. Her tongue gently prodded his lips open and then danced against his. She tasted like fresh mint. One of her legs wrapped around his in a feverish repeat of the tango. As his fingers began to trace the taut muscles in her back, she lifted her head and shivered with pleasure. Shikamaru kissed her jawline and slowly moved down her neck.

Temari half fell, half pulled him in through the tent flap. They stumbled around in the darkness for a bit, pulling at each other's clothes, jumping with each unexpected touch of bare skin. At some point the cot caught Shikamaru across the back of the knees, and he fell, pulling her down on top of him.

Temari paused, straddling him and cupped his face in her hand. Slowly, delicately she leaned down, kissed the bridge of his nose, the tip, and then lingered, just barely brushing his lips with hers, breathing heavily on his cheek.

Shikamaru's mental chess board had suffered a minor earthquake. Instead of orderly little rows, pieces were skewed every which way. While the little chess player was scrambling to put the shogi tiles back in some sort of defense, his other bishop was hastily deployed. "So," he muttered awkwardly as Temari leaned over and nibbled his earlobe, "was that goodnight kiss acceptable, or am I going to be stripped naked and tied up?"

"That depends." Temari whispered breathlessly in his ear. "Do you want to be?"

There was another jarring crash in his head from the shogi board. His bishop was effortlessly captured and flipped, now facing him as an adversary. Temari burst out laughing. "Oh! If only you could see your face right now!" She sat up and pulled her hair back from her face with both hands, and then dropped them back down to his chest. "Relax!" she exclaimed with a grin. "I almost never tie people up on the first date." Her fingers found the zipper on his flak jacket and slowly pulled it down.

"Um... Temari?" he croaked hoarsely.

She lifted an eyebrow in a mischievous grin. "What? Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to wear combat gear in front of a lady? She might think you were planning a sneak attack or something." The zipper came loose with a pop. With a bit of wriggling on his part, she pushed the flak jacket off his shoulder and tossed it unceremoniously in the corner. She walked her fingertips up to his shoulders, and then slid them from the top of his chest all the way down to his belt. "I don't think I've ever seen you without that thing."

She kept tracing slow circles on his stomach. It was doing a great job of completely ruining his concentration. The shogi master was quivering with every revolution, but he still threw down a few random tiles. "I didn't have it at the Chunin exams," he said stupidly, "you know... the first one."

Temari tossed back her head and chuckled. "Ah, you were so young and cute back then." Fingers found the edge of his shirt and slipped under caressing his bare skin. Temari smiled again, her eyes gleaming in the dim light of the tent. "In a very dour, scowling way of course."

Her teasing snapped the chess player back into some semblance of life. A lance, knight, silver general exchange played itself out in his head in quick succession. As she slowly inched his shirt higher, his own fingers crept up her knees, brushed lightly over her fishnet armor on her thighs, and crawled up and over her hips. Her mouth opened with a small quiver as Shikamaru inched up and under her blouse and stroked her rib cage.

* * *

Temari was rather enjoying the way Shikamaru was jumping with every caress of hers. He felt like her own little puppet, moving at her every command. It was also feeling quite pleasant to have him fondling her legs. But when Shikamaru's hands slid up and under the blouse of her two part, short kimono, she cried out and flinched away from the tickling brush of his fingers. "Stop that!" she yelped, trying to squirm away. He wriggled his fingers again and she laughed "Stop I said!"

"You're... ticklish?" he asked incredulously.

"I am not! You're just..." her thought dissolved into a burst of laughter. "Stop it!"

She looked down to find him smirking up at her. "What? You just said you aren't ticklish. Why should I stop? I'm not doing anything you didn't do to me first."

"Just stop it!" Temari cried out breathlessly. She bounced herself about trying in vain to escape his hands.

Grinning, Shikamaru held her hips with one hand, while the other kept on lightly caressing her. A tingling sensation ran down her stomach as a giggle escaped her lips. "So you can dish it out, but you can't take it huh?" he asked in an amused voice. "You don't see me bouncing around, yelping like a... " He swallowed his words and his hand suddenly froze. Her writhing had brought her directly over his pelvis. In that playful moment he had firmly grabbed her about the waist and arched up against her to prevent her squirming escape.

It felt... well... good. Very good. Unbelievably good. There was a stunned moment as they stared at each other.

"Um... I didn't mean..." was all Shikamaru managed to say before Temari tentatively pressed herself down on him. She inhaled sharply as they rubbed together a third time. At the fifth she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.

Shikamaru looked up at her, his eyes glassy. "You know," he stammered, "we don't have to do this if you don't want..." His comment was cut off by her mouth coming down on his. She pulled frantically at his shirt, breaking in her kiss only to yank it up and over his head. Once he was bare chested, she rocked down pressing herself against him. Their tongues swirled again, and she heard herself moan in a short guttural sound. His hands fumbled with the ties of her kimono and suddenly a delicious tingle swept over her as her chest and back were directly exposed to the cooler night air.

Temari lowered herself down to him, and their bodies pressed together. She clutched at his shoulders covering his face with kisses, slowly rocking back and forth on top of him as his palms roamed over her neck, her spine, her back, her hips, her butt.

Shikamaru's hands crossed twice over her bra. The third time they stopped and hovered there, and plucked uncertainly at the strap. Temari kissed her way over to his earlobe. "It's okay," she breathed. "You can take it off."

Again his fingers journeyed across her back. "And, um... how do you... do that?"

Temari sat up. "It's a front clasp." She smiled down at him, lying underneath her and couldn't resist getting in a dig. "Some tactical genius you are, can't figure out a little thing like that."

* * *

Despite everything, Shikamaru scowled. "Well excuse me! It's not like I have a lot of experience with... these things." He felt Temari shiver as he fumbled over the red silk. The next move was fairly obvious. In fact, according to little Shikamaru in his head, who kept laying down a furious clatter of shogi tiles with increasingly sweaty palms, the vast majority of outcomes in this situation were getting... very interesting... very interesting indeed.

It had dawned on him that there was just one major obstacle. He had no idea how to take her bra off. Up until this point in his life, the entirety of his sexual knowledge was of the literary persuasion. To be more specific, it was procured from whatever H manga he had most recently swiped from Kiba Inuzuka, and the few sneak peeks he had managed to steal from his father's autographed, deluxe edition, collector set of Icha-Icha novels he kept hidden from his mother in an ornately carved wooden box with a secret compartment in the bottom. In the former, gigantic bosoms seemed to explode out of a woman's underwear at the slightest touch, while the latter had a long tirade bemoaning the needless complexity of some sort of hook / clasp system found on the modern brasserie. This one Temari was wearing, had the clasp situated neatly in what Jiraiya the Sanin would have casually referred to as 'The Valley of the Gods'. It wouldn't budge, no matter what he did to it.

The chess master had just desperately suggested he try using his teeth, when there was a drawn out sigh. "Do you need help?" Temari asked, every syllable dripping with wry amusement.

Shikamaru snorted. "No! I'm just..."

Temari raised an eyebrow, and gave him a look. "You're lying," she called out in a sing song voice.

Shikamaru hung his head. "Fine," he grudgingly admitted.

She took his hands in hers. "Look, once you figure it out it's easy." She held his fingers around the clasp. "You just bend it and pull up and apart... see?" There was a little metallic click and the silk cups relaxed.

Timidly, Shikamaru reached up and slowly tugged the straps down and off her shoulders. Temari looked away, but bent her arms back to ease the removal of her underwear. The bra landed with a whisper of falling cloth on the floor.

There was another pause. Shikamaru swallowed and tried to come up with his next move, but the only thing the little Shikamaru in his head was contributing right now was the thought, "Wow... those look... very different than the ones in Kiba's comic books."

He had known that those gravity defying behemoths tipped with nipples that could put out someone's eye that those manga artists were always drawing were... well… slightly embellished. But still, seeing a real live pair of breasts in front of him, was a little awe inspiring. There was a slight tan following the neckline of her blouse that dipped and colored the top and valley of her breasts. Each was probably a little bigger than his outstretched hands, and slowly getting goosebumps as they jutted out perkily into the cooler night air. But what was really capturing his attention was the way they rose and fell with each breath she took.

Temari's head was still turned but she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "What?" she asked nervously. She quickly cleared her throat, and folded her arms across her chest. "What are you staring at?" she asked sharply.

"No-nothing!" Shikamaru replied with a stammer. "I was just surprised... That's all."

"Surprised about what?" she asked in an icy tone.

Shikamaru gave the chess master in his head a mental kick, but it had no effect other than making his jaw drop open. Thankfully, just as Shikamaru was about to say "Your boobs", arising from a combined attack of panic, honesty and desperation, a second mental figure stepped forth from the recesses of his mind. Cloaked and hidden in shadow, it reached out and advanced a lance to the other side of the board with a loud clack before taking an observer's seat right on the edge of the darkness. One of the catchphrases of the nameless wandering shinobi/writer/hero from the Icha-Icha novels echoed in his mind: _Whenever you find yourself in trouble with a woman, lay on the compliments thick and heavy... It can't hurt._

* * *

Temari was starting to feel the nagging doubts build. A few moments ago she was pretty sure she wanted to do this with Shikamaru, but now...

The only other person she had ever let touch her like this had been Gorou... and while it had been... interesting, it was hardly ideal. Gorou had seemed so confident that she would enjoy the pinching and pulling and rough squeezing, and embarrassingly enough... she had been so eager to make sure he liked her that, well... she had kind of... played along with it.

"_Wait," Temari had gasped as he slid his hand down from her blouse and up and under her skirt. "Just wait!" she insisted, shoving him away._

_He tilted his head back giving her a patronizing grin. "What it is Babe? I thought you liked me?"_

_Temari did her best to smooth down her blouse. "I do... but we... You're..."_

_Gorou grinned. "You're not getting scared now are you? I thought you weren't afraid of anything?"_

"_No! I'm not!" she insisted, "It's just that," she motioned around at the darkened playground they had walked to after their date. They had started making out in the shadows beside the play fort. "We're in a public place! We'll get caught!"_

_He grinned that sparkling smile of his. "Relax babe, I've taken dozens of girls here and we never get caught." They continued making out, but something had left the evening. She didn't want to be one of dozens... She wanted to be special. Gorou had cajoled, teased, and tried outright bullying her into sleeping with him. But she coolly refused all of his advances and headed home._

_The next day he made sure everyone had heard what they had done. The following night she had her revenge... But that was nothing compared to what her father did._

When Shikamaru took off her bra and just sat there... staring, open mouthed... there was a brief flash of Gorou in her head and she began to have second thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," he said with honest sincerity. "It's just..." He swallowed nervously. "You're beautiful."

Temari had been called many things growing up: regal, imperious, haughty, a princess... words that others use to skirt around their true opinions of the influential and powerful. Beautiful was new. She couldn't remember anyone ever saying that, not even her father. She turned her head sharply. "You don't have to sound so surprised about it." It came out far less harsh than she was intending.

"I'm not saying I'm surprised," Shikamaru continued quietly. "It's like..." a thoughtful look flickered over his face. "It's like knowing your whole life that in the next valley over there's the most beautiful waterfall in a glen, and then, one day you happen to go there yourself, and you get to see it first-hand." His finger ran up and down her forearms, still folded across her chest. "That's what I meant."

Temari felt the blush creep up her face. "Since when did you turn into a poet?" she quipped, trying to cover her embarrassment.

Shikamaru shook his head. "You asked why I was staring, I told you. Take the compliment and don't be a drag about it. " He pushed himself up to a seated position, so Temari was straddling his lap. He reached out and brushed her bangs back from her forehead. "I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he said softly.

"I'm probably the only woman you've ever seen," she muttered looking away.

Shikamaru smirked, wrapped his fingers around her palms. He smiled and shrugged. "First time for everything." He gently tugged her hands away.

Temari held her breath as he caressed first her left breast, and then her right. Cupping them both at the same time, he used his thumbs to draw small circles across each nipple. A warm tingle floated down her spine as both of them tightened up and grew harder with each stroke. "Is that okay?" he asked. Her reply was a nod.

Shikamaru leaned forward and kissed her, continuing his fondling. She found herself slowly rocking forward against him, matching the circling pace of his fingers. Her breath escaped in a short moan and she started to press her lips against him harder, wanting more.

Shikamaru turned slightly and kissed his way along her jaw and down her neck. "Is that ok?" he asked as he worked his way down again.

As a reply, Temari put both hands on the back of his head and held him there as he nibbled at her collarbone. She plucked at the leather thong holding his hair up in its typical top knot until it came loose. As his hair came cascading down, she entwined it around her fingers and slowly combed them through.

Shikamaru kept nuzzling and licking his way downward. She held herself very still as his breath washed in a warm slow wave over her areola. There was brief pause, and then his tongue flicked out once.

* * *

He heard Temari gasp as he licked her nipple. Encouraged, he next tried slowly sucking it into his mouth. He ran his tongue in a slow circle, imitating what his thumbs had been doing earlier. She rocked into him even harder than before and pressed his head into her chest. It was a bit of a struggle for him to lift his face away. "I take it... that was okay?" he asked with a half-smile.

Temari nodded, her eyes half closed. "Yes," she said breathlessly, "and Shikamaru?"

"Yes?"

"Stop asking me 'is that okay?' every two minutes. It was cute the first time, but now it's getting annoying. Take charge for once... Do whatever you feel like. I'll stop you if I want you to stop." Without giving him a chance to reply she smothered his face in her bosom.

It was too much for the little chess player in his head, who screamed out "Woo-hoo!" and fell over, blood fountaining from both nostrils. Somehow, Shikamaru managed to mentally separate a piece of himself away, just enough to let him observe. "This situation is starting to get out of hand," he thought to himself, running his tongue over to her left breast and ever so gently teasing her with his teeth. "There has to be some way I can cool things off." Things weren't bad per say… they were just getting to be outside his comfort zone and he did not enjoy the feeling of being unsure and appearing incompetent.

You wouldn't think it to look at him, but Shikamaru actually kind of enjoyed being the smartest guy in the room. Even when everyone else was cursing him out for being a lazy, good for nothing bum, internally he got some small satisfaction from knowing that he could run mental circles around everyone he knew. In games of logic and strategy, in the art of war, or especially in finding the path of least resistance, he was your man.

As far as matters of romance were concerned, he felt like he had been stripped naked and dropped in the deep woods forced to find his way back home without a map or a compass. He and his father had never had 'the talk'. His mother was hardly approachable on such matters. She could wither a morally tenuous thought from a hundred yards with nothing more than a raised eyebrow.

He was lost without a guideline, lost without a path... lost without a strategy. If there was one thing to make his stomach start churning anxiously, it was being without a strategy.

He tried curling his hands around her waist and pushing her down against him. Temari responded by grinding herself down even harder. "Hmmm...Yup. This is definitely... Oh god." She was panting loudly in his ear, and he found it to be the most erotic thing he ever heard. What little control he had over his thoughts began to float away. "Definitely out of control here... Um... help?" he called out into the recesses of his mind.

There was sigh from the side of the mental shogi board. The shadowy figure stood and looked down at the little Shikamaru, quivering in ecstasy. Shaking its head, the figure nudged him back up to the shogi board with its toe. As the figure bent into the light to sit back down at the opposite side of the game board, some of his details grew a little clearer, but its face remained cloaked in obscurity.

This new arrival was richly clad in a black cloak tied about the waist with a bright red sash. The shadowy figure moved a bishop forward. It snapped into position. Again, a relevant passage from one of Jiraiya-sama's books (_Make Out Tactics_ he thought) appeared in his head.

"_...You don't understand Sensei!" My young apprentice wailed, "She's so forward! She continually tries to accost me in public! The other day I was trying to eat my lunch and she just sat down at the counter next to me and started tickling me with her long red hair! What am I to do!"_

"_My dear boy," I said, slapping him across the back, "What are you complaining about? You should be ecstatic! The girl is obviously smitten with you!"_

"_But... but... sensei," he whispered his face turning a bright crimson. "When we're together, it's like we can't control ourselves... It's unbecoming of a shinobi!"_

_It was all I could do not to laugh at his discomfort. "Control? Being with a woman has nothing to do with control. It's like... It's like dancing. When you force the moves and control your partner everything feels uncomfortable. You have to go with the flow... let things happen naturally." My student looked up at me dubiously and I tried harder to explain. "Think of it this way my son - out of all the trouble we've gotten into on all the adventures we've been on... this has got to be the most enjoyable, no?" I grinned at him. "Listen to an old man... don't think... do... enjoy it."_

Shikamaru lifted his head up from her breasts and almost instantly her mouth came crashing down on his. He enjoyed it. It was almost like they were dancing the tango again. They were going through the motions without thinking, a complex dance of act and react.

Inside his mind, pawns jockeyed back and forth forming and destroying intricate defensive arrays. Then with a single clack, out came his silver general. A bold move, a forward move, a provocative move.

His fingers pulled the zipper at the back of her skirt to loosen it up a little and he started to work his hand down inside. He couldn't see what she did exactly, they were completely lip locked, but there was a bit of a scramble as she rose up off his lap, shimmied for a moment or two and then pushed him down on the cot and lay on her side next to him, all the while never breaking the kiss.

Shikamaru put one arm around on her back, while the other played idly across her chest. It was his immediate plan to kiss her breasts some more, followed by a bit more dry humping, but as he ran his hand down her spine and over her butt, intending to pull her closer... he realized he was touching bare skin all the way down.

That made him open his eyes. Temari was centimeters away from his face, staring at him, lips pursed, looking demure. It was the hardest thing in the world not to look down. But while he was struggling to control his eyes, his mouth managed to slip away from him. "Um, I'm sorry to ask this, but... are you... naked?"

Temari nodded. "Mmm-Hmm." Her nails were leaving burning trails as she traced whorls and curves down his chest.

"Oh." Thankfully, despite the loss of the silver general, his reaction came out somewhat calmly. He was so grateful for this new cloaked chess player. He seemed to have ice water in his veins. He swore Temari would be able to hear the gurgle and thump from the little Shikamaru inside his head having a near fatal nosebleed. "Why?"

Temari tugged on his belt and pulled it free. "It was going to happen sooner or later." She undid the buttons on the front of his pants. "Lie down please," she said placing one hand firmly in his chest and pushing him back.

Once he was down she began pulling his trousers off. "Um... Y-You're undressing me," he stammered.

Temari tossed his pants off into a murky corner of the tent. His boxers soon followed suit. "Of course," she said, her voice brimming with confidence. "I absolutely refuse to be the only naked person in this tent."


	4. Chapter 4

To be perfectly honest with herself, Temari's confidence wasn't as… solid as she was making it out to be.

There were four main factors that were driving this whole... naked... situation forward: First, since that day she graduated from the Suna Shinobi academy, she vowed to herself that Temari no Sabaku would never let herself be held down by her fears or her limits. If by some small chance she ever found herself feeling apprehensive about something, she made a point to face it head on. She was constantly doing things like that simply to prove how much of a true kunoichi she was. Second, her thigh high armored fishnets were digging into some very uncomfortable places every time she ground down against him. She had had enough of them. Third, being here, with Shikamaru... was incredible. Every time he kissed her, warm butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Little shivers followed his hands as they roamed over her body. She'd had some experience with 'heavy petting' from Gorou many years earlier... but that was nothing compared to this. She was almost beginning to see why the other girls in Hidden Sand had been tittering about boys and how wonderful they were for all these years.

And finally, whatever little jolts of nervousness she herself was feeling about being naked, it was obvious Shikamaru was feeling them a hundredfold. It was so much fun to tease him like this. Seriously, he looked like he was about to jump right out of his skin. It was so cute the way he was trying not to gawk.

Temari, however, had no such reservations. She even crawled right up next to him and nudged his clenched knees apart so she could get a better look.

She hadn't seen a penis since she had last bathed Gaara, back when he was three, right before Uncle Yashamaru was assigned to be his valet. Actually, while he was that age, everyone had seen Gaara's little sand worm a few times too often. No one wanted to be the one to tell a tantrum prone jinchuriki that he had to go put his pants on if he didn't want to.

Shikamaru's was obviously bigger, but she'd heard that was supposed to be a good thing. It curved up through a nest of tight black curls and tapped impatiently on his lower abdomen.

His face slowly grew still as she continued her wordless study. "I really... really hope you're not going to make any size jokes," he said with poorly hidden trepidation.

She felt herself smirk. "So it's true what they say about the male ego then?" She gave his penis another few seconds of mock examination. "It looks perfectly… acceptable to me... although I have to say... I was expecting it to stick out more."

"Stick out more?"

"You know stick out straight, like this." She grabbed his shaft between thumb and forefinger and tugged it to a ninety degree angle from the rest of his body.

Shikamaru gasped. Temari almost did too. His trouser snake jumped and quivered against her fingers. Curious as to what would happen, she tightened her grip slightly.

"Um... Temari?" Shikamaru croaked. Temari ignored him, fascinated. She could feel every beat of his heart. It sat there firm and warm in her hand, yet the skin was so thin and soft. She couldn't help but give in to her interest, and give it a closer look.

Hmmm... Well... So this was the thing men were always strutting around bragging about. Visually, it lacked appeal, but taking into account the tactile sensations, she supposed it did have a little something going for it. She brushed her fingers over the tip and watched Shikamaru jump.

"Oh? You liked that?" she asked with a teasing grin. "How does this feel?" She gave him a slow gentle tug.

Shikamaru abruptly sat up, a frantic look in his eye. "Okay! Temari that's..."

She pushed him back down with her free hand. "Shh! Don't interrupt me, I'm doing research here. Now you said this felt okay?" she tugged on it once again. "Just okay? Or good?"

"It feels good... really good.. but..." His mouth dropped open as she began a constant rhythm of moving her hand up and down.

* * *

It was only through the continuous, reassuring, clacking of shogi tiles that he was to have any semblance of resistance to her... charms. Playing the pawn, bishop, pawn, knight, silver general, exchange kept him just distracted enough... barely. As far the mental shogi game was going though... he was getting creamed.

"So," Temari asked after a handful of strokes "Does it have a name?"

""Huh?" asked Shikamaru, immediately wishing he had more of his wits about him so he wouldn't sound so stupid.

Temari shrugged and wiggled her hand. "This. What do you call it?"

"Um... My dick?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh come on! Everyone says that all boys give their genitalia some really impressive pet name."

"Who says?" he managed to grunt.

"Everyone! Don't try to look so innocent Shikamaru, it's a well documented fact! What do you call yours?"

Through some miracle Shikamaru prevented himself from looking down at Musashi the Eternal Golden General as Temari jiggled him in her hand. "I told you... I just call it my dick," he lied.

* * *

Temari raised an eyebrow. "So you still refuse to tell me?" she said with a giggle, "Well, I have ways of making you talk!"

"And what would those be?" asked Shikamaru, his hands clenching and unclenching involuntarily.

"Oh, you know… just ways," she said in a voice dripping with scientific inquiry. She wasn't quite sure if the look on his face was confusion or fear, so she decided to give him a quick explanation. He was uneasy enough at it was. "I never attended the seduction lectures at the academy. My father insisted they weren't necessary."

Actually he did more than insist. The Kazekage outright forbid her. "Your position of birth means that you have value beyond that of a typical kunoichi." He had ignored her protests, that her fellow classmates would look at her differently and shun her, and pulled out his favorite saying: "These actions today will help your family and your village in the future. If the other girls can't comprehend this... well... then perhaps seduction missions are all they are good for."

Temari shook off the resentment and focused on Shikamaru. "I still managed to... hear things... from other sources." She crawled forward. "Hold still. I want to test the effectiveness of something." Temari leaned in the last few centimeters and kissed the tip.

It was all she could do not to grin at his sharp gasp. The head sat there hot and pulsing against her lips. She kissed it twice more in between tugs before sticking out her tongue and giving it a lick.

Shikamaru bucked at the sensation. Encouraged, she kept on going. He tasted a little sweaty. Not bad, it was like licking your lips after a run in the hot sun. "I heard that this was supposed to feel really good," she murmured before opening her mouth and taking the twitching, curved length of him inside.

Oh gods, his reaction! He moaned and grabbed at her shoulders as she bobbed her head up and down. He called out her name once and then again more frantically, "Temari... Temari!" He pulled at her shoulders and his skin flute fell from her lips with a pop.

"What?" she asked with a teasing grin, continuing to pull on his manhood. "Is something wrong?"

Shikamaru's eyes were squeezed tight. "I'm... I'm..." his stammer turned into a guttural groan.

There was a long moment of embarrassed silence.

* * *

Shikamaru cracked his eyelids open to survey the damage. Temari was staring at her hands with an expression somewhere between shock and confusion. She glanced up at him quickly. "Does... um... that... usually happen?"

"Yes," Shikamaru said.

"I know that! I meant... that much of it?" she continued in a very controlled voice.

"I've been... busy... and... it builds up," Shikamaru mumbled.

"Ah," she said quietly. "Yes, I suppose that… makes sense. I was always led to believe that an... eruption like that doesn't happen in... reality." She slowly got up from the cot. "I'll be right back; I just need to... wash my hands." She padded off. There was the quick gurgle of water, and the sound of hands rubbing together. A few second later she shuffled back and sat down on the narrow bed next to him. Her forehead was creased as if she was pondering something. "Scoot over," she said finally wriggling herself up close.

"There's no room on this thing," he complained, his ass half hanging off the bed. In the end they settled, with her lying pressed up to his side, one leg tossed over his. He moved in to kiss, but she pulled her mouth away. He had to settle for letting his lips graze each eye, and then moving on to her nose and ear.

Temari's hand crept down to his groin. "You're still hard," she said with an interested note in her voice, once again fondling him.

He sighed. "Like I said, I've been... busy." Now that some of his 'tension' had been released, his mental shogi game was back in business. A lance-bishop combo was prepared to sweep down the board.

"It's going to stay that way... won't it?"

Shikamaru snickered. "Have you been reading Henati manga?"

Temari looked up "No!" she insisted affronted. "I just... want to know... that's all."

Shikamaru kept on grinning. "Well, it's always been my experience that it tends to go soft after a bit." She raised one eyebrow at that and he could just see the obvious question forming on her lips. He definitely did not want to go into a detailed account of his 'experiences'. Quickly he tried to change the subject: "But, I'm kind of entering new territory here, so I guess with enough stimulation anything is possible… "

"Oh," Temari took a deep breath. "We'd better hurry up then."

"Hurry up for what?"

"I... want you... to... put it inside of me," she finished with ironclad certainty.

* * *

Dammit! She knew that those comics Kankuro thought that he had oh so cleverly hidden under his mattress took... well... creative liberties about a great many things, but they mentioned multiple male orgasms so many times that she was hoping there would be some truth to the matter. If she had known for sure, she probably wouldn't have... gone so far earlier.

Looking at his face, it was clear that some of Shikamaru's confidence had returned. Her announcement that she wanted to sleep with him only caused a brief flicker of absolute panic, followed almost immediately by controlled blankness. "You're sure about this?" he asked with only the tiniest hesitation. His eyes followed her as she got up and scrambled amongst her gear on the floor, found the standard issue medical equipment pouch, and pulled out a foil wrapped condom.

She slid back into the cot. "Of course I'm sure! I just told you to didn't I?" she said, making sure she sounded undaunted.

She wasn't sure.

She liked Shikamaru... a lot... a whole lot... lots and lots and lots and lots... and while on the one hand, the pounding rush of ecstasy coursing through her was one of the most amazing things she had ever felt, at the same time, opening herself up like this was... worrying. The last time she had tried opening up her armor like this and let someone inside... well... it had been Gorou.

Not that Shikamaru was opening her armor or anything. Nothing could get through her steel walls these days. Her father and her history had made sure of that. But she felt this sensation that something of his was getting through. It was as if he had pried open a tiny crack exposing the cold void within her. He couldn't touch it, she didn't think anyone could, but he knew it was there and it felt like he was shining a warm spotlight on it.

She looked up at Shikamaru. There was the flush of color on his cheeks. He was still breathing heavy and even. His manhood was resting hard in her hand, occasionally brushing against her hip as they shifted. It was obvious he wanted her. But when he looked at her, it wasn't with raw lust, it wasn't with the pompous certainty of Gorou, with the assumption that there was no conceivable way she could deny him. There was a hunger in Shikamaru's eyes but it was tempered by tenderness.

Then there were all the other issues. Since she was six she had been told she was special... That because of her position she had to be better, stronger. That she had duties that went above and beyond those of a standard shinobi. That she was destined to be aloof and alone until political necessities dictated otherwise.

While she was hesitating, Shikamaru leaned forward and kissed her. That sealed her decision. Whatever else was happening, tonight she wanted someone... and he was here. Fuck her father, fuck Gaara, fuck the Suna elders, fuck anyone who said she had to be some sort of demure, pure little princess waiting for the men in her family to find some suitable political match for herself. If she had to prove this to them by fucking Shikamaru, she thought with a blush, then so be it. "I'm sure," she announced, ignoring a growing unstable watery feeling in the pit of her stomach, a similar feeling to the first time she sailed her fan off the tall desert bluffs that surrounded the Hidden Sand village… all nervousness and danger with some exhilaration mixed in. She tore open the condom wrapper. Then she rolled off to one side and quickly lay back.

* * *

In theory Shikamaru knew exactly what to do. In theory it should be as easy as insert tab 'a' into slot 'b', as easy as a straight lance thrust at an unprotected king. Shikamaru positioned himself on top of Temari, took a deep breath, and slowly pressed forward.

There is a lot of nuance between 'in theory' and 'in practice'.

He tried again, a little more forcefully this time. He could feel exactly where her opening was... but... well... to make a metaphor, the pawn screen defending the king was strong... very strong. It was tight. In Kiba's manga the characters always went on and on about the 'tightness' of a woman as if it was supposed to be a good thing. This... didn't seem to be a good thing. Every millimeter he crept in, Temari would flinch and brace herself. It felt warm and slick but very soon it was like he was up against a wall. There was a sharp intake of breath from underneath him.

He looked down. Temari did not look like she was enjoying herself. Her lips were pale from being pressed together, and her eyes were wrinkling at the corners. "Temari? Are you…?" he started to ask.

"I'm fine," she grunted. "Just keep on going!" The harshness in her voice was just too much. Musashi the Eternal Golden General shriveled mid charge.

He slowly let himself down, legs resting between hers, but propping himself up on his elbows. Temari's eyes remained squeezed shut as he shifted around, her whole body taught as a bowstring. He started to lean forward to kiss her but she abruptly turned her head away.

* * *

She prided herself on being unflappable. She hated the very idea that anyone would think she was weak, that she couldn't master any situation life threw at her… that she was anything less than the perfect Suna kunoichi.

But most of all, she hated looking like a fool.

And what a fool she must look right now, not being able to carry through on this... one little thing… After going against traditions and the wishes of her father, casting away everything that he had drilled into her head for all these years...she had a duty to her family, to the Hidden Sand.

She was a woman born into the ruling clan in Suna. In some families, that would have made her nothing more than some chit to be used in the greater game of politics. Thankfully her father insisted that all of his children become shinobi. There were times in her life when she resented him for that, but she could see the reasoning behind it now.

And then, almost right after the exact moment she decided to forge ahead and take the plunge so to speak, she found herself losing her nerve.

Temari no Sabaku never lost her nerve. But from the moment Shikamaru started to lie down on top of her, she could practically feel her father giving her that same disapproving frown he made when he had found out about her dallying with Gorou.

_It was impossible for him not to find out, after all, the boy was tied up and swinging naked from the stone arch which marked the main entrance to the Hidden Sand. "Do you realize what you have done?" he asked her openly in front of the entire council of elders and clan chiefs._

_She had felt the guilt and shame rising up, twisting inside of her like a pair of rattlesnakes fighting over the same desert rat, but she did as she had been trained to do and pushed it all away. She forced herself to stand at parade rest and ignore the staring eyes. "Yes my Kazkage. Gorou of the Green Sand shamed me. Honor demanded that he be punished."_

_There was a murmur from the crowd. Her father's face could have been carved from stone. "Is the boy's tale true then? Did you go with him willingly? Did he bed you?"_

_How like her father, to favor bluntly getting to the point instead of using subtlety. "On my honor as a kunoichi, he did not bed me."_

"_But did you seek him out?"_

_Temari fought to keep herself from blushing. "I… initially I did go with him of my own accord, but…" __There was another murmur from the crowd, but this one was undercut with a touch of amusement._

"_All of you please leave us," her father said in his official Kazekage's voice, "I need to speak to my daughter… alone."_

_She knew she was in trouble then… She couldn't remember the last time her father spoke to her alone. She fixed her eyes on a point just over his head as the elders slowly filed out of the audience chamber. After it had emptied her father stared at her for a minute or so before speaking. "You have failed to convince me you were blameless in this Temari. If you can't convince your own father, how can you expect to convince anyone else?" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gorou of the Green Sand… A young man infamous for his philandering. A name cursed by the fathers of every eligible young woman in Suna… No less than twelve claims have been brought against his clan as a direct result of his foolishness... Twelve! Any shame you feel was brought upon by yourself."_

"_I'm sorry sir. I know it was extremely poor judgment for me to…"_

_He interrupted her. "I have one son who spends all of his time with the Red Sand clan, playing with dolls, and another who is little more than a savage, unthinking killing machine. I had always assumed that of my three children, you were the promising one. Yet, not only did you throw your family's good name to the wind by acting like some mongrel bitch in heat, you chose to regain it by shaming this Gorou in the most public manner possible… Are you just stupid or were you trying to deliberately harm me?"_

_His words hit her like a punch to the gut. She opened her mouth to apologize further, but he silenced her with a glance. "You should know that a good story will always travel. Everyone in Suna who saw that boy hanging there is going want to hear the tale behind it." He sighed. "And what is worse, by making it public, you antagonized his family. I now have to make amends with the Green Sand clan." His eyes narrowed slightly. "I shudder to think of what those greedy farmers will try to wring from me when I speak to them next. If you had used your head, you would have realized that if this empty-headed bully were to mysteriously disappear, his clan would not have shed more than a handful of tears. I am dumbfounded by your lack of foresight in this matter."_

_She wasn't able to hide her embarrassment anymore; her face felt like it was on fire. "I'm sorry Father… Please give me a chance… I can try to…"_

"_You have done enough. You are dismissed. I will fix this matter in the manner it should have been dealt with in the first place…"_

_She hesitated. "But I…"_

"_You are dismissed, I said!" he said in an iron hard voice. "You have disappointed me enough this day. Don't make things worse by being insubordinate."_

She heard Shikamaru chuckle nervously and cracked open her eyelids just a hair. Temari could read him well enough by now to see that he was going to try to turn this whole situation into some kind of a joke... never once realizing how big a risk she was taking for him.

She was surprised to find out how much that hurt. She didn't want to see him laughing in this situation; it was too much like he was laughing at her. She took a deep breath and tried to do what she always did… push all those undesirable emotions down and away.

It didn't work.

She tried again. Nothing. The anguish refused to be hidden and refused to be ignored. It resonated inside her with steady pulses, building in intensity with each wave. She reached for her armor, for those cold precipitous walls that kept her safe and secure and found a hole in them the size of the moon.

For the briefest of moments she stared at that gaping hole in shock. She was open… she was vulnerable. She started to panic.

And it was at that exact moment that Shikamaru decided to open his mouth. "Well… that was a disappointment," he said with shake of his head.

Disappointment… he said she was a disappointment. That word cut through her insides like a rusty kunai.

Again her father's stern face floated in front of her. She was being weak. She was a disappointment.

In the next instant all of the repressed hurt bottled up inside of her kindled into a single burst of white hot rage. She was the one who was putting her reputation, her village, her family, her name on the line here…It wasn't fair! Nobody ever cared about what a boy did with his body! Male shinobi had no problems sharing stories about their conquests… They even laughed about it!

She had the sudden flash of Kankuro, her own brother, casually bragging about how he was going to seek the company of that ample bosomed Mist kunoichi, right in front of her, in the midst of a bunch of strangers, like it didn't matter at all. Her brain made a leap, wondering how long it would take Shikamaru to do that about her… after all Gorou had spread the word to all of his friends in Suna, and that was only because she had refused to sleep with him… something which he was obviously put out about.

How disappointed was Shikamaru at this moment? Would he try to put the blame on her? What sort of tales might he tell to the Hidden Leaf crowd about his night with her?

She needed to put a stop to that, put Shikamaru in his place, and she needed to do it right now. She needed to make sure he would keep his mouth shut. She had one tried and true way to ensure that. She needed to let him know, in no uncertain terms, that she could hurt him as much as he could hurt her.

* * *

Well… this was awkward.

Shikamaru really had no idea what to do in a situation like this. Jiraiya didn't even gloss over it in the Icha-icha series, and that man went into minuscule detail about everything that could occur during the 'waltz of romance'. He was really hoping that Temari wasn't as embarrassed as he was.

He was trying to think of some way to lighten the whole situation when her eyes snapped open, piercing him with a fierce stare. "You're right, that was quite a disappointment… and there's no one to blame for it but you," she said firmly.

He thought she was teasing him at first. "Oh come on, it's all my fault? I think you might have also played some role in what just happened here."

Her eyes narrowed slightly and she started to pull away. "You heard what I said. There is no one to blame but you… Mister Floppy."

This sudden onslaught of aggression surprised him. He had no idea what brought it on. His mental Shogi board was a chaotic whirl of pieces moving this way and that. He reached out and tried to take hold of her arm. "Look Temari, this isn't a big deal... We just..."

"No!" she snapped, her voice tight. "That is where you are so very wrong. Maybe it's just not a big deal for you! Did you even realize what I was just about to do here?"

He couldn't help it, the absurdity of that statement made him snort with amusement. "Um… yes? It was kind of hard to miss what was going on."

Her scowl deepened. "Don't you dare laugh at me!"

He let out another small chuckle. "Well I'm sorry for laughing, but you have to admit, on some level… this whole situation is funny." She pulled her arm free and scrambled up on the bed, not looking at him. "Oh, come on Temari, admit it… if I told someone about what happened tonight, they'd think it was hilarious!"

Her saw her shoulders stiffen first, then her head slowly rose up. Her eyes were cold, like a stormy arctic ocean. "You take that back!" she hissed.

"Take what back? It's true! If it wasn't so pathetic…"

She shoved him. Hard. "Don't you dare think you can blame this on me! I am not the one who is being pathetic!" she snarled. "I want an apology!"

He felt his own temper start to flare. "An apology? Why should I apologize? You were the one that said you wanted have sex!"

Her lip curled up in a sneer. "Like you objected."

"What was I supposed say? You were practically throwing yourself at me!"

Her nostrils flared and a muscle rippled along her jaw. "How stupid of me, I should have realized that anyone who wasn't such a coward would have had the balls to speak up!" Every word of hers dripped sarcasm.

"I would have if I thought you were going to freak out like this!"

"And there you go again, trying to weasel your way out of it, acting like this is somehow my problem!" She curled her legs up to her chest. "Gods, you are such a crybaby!" She glared at him. "Well? I want my apology! I want to hear you admit this is your fault! Take some responsibility for once in your life! Act like a man, will you?"

That was too much for Shikamaru. He didn't deserve this abuse. Given recent events, he was already feeling a more than a little ashamed, feeling like less of a man. To hear the same thing coming out of Temari's mouth so casually right then...

Inside of his mind, he slammed his rook down on the opposite side of the mental shogi board, promoting it onto a dragon. If she wanted to hit him where he was vulnerable, well he could turn the tables on that. He readied a retort, something along the lines of, 'All my fault huh? You could have fooled me! You were the one who insisted on giving me head!' He could picture her face going red with rage, but he wouldn't stop there, oh no. 'Is this what you did to Gorou? Huh? Have your fun and then turn on him too?' He started to move his dragon to put her king in check.

The mystery opponent placed a hand down over the piece preventing the little chess player from moving it. That... was unexpected. Again he attempted to make a move, and again the cloaked player at the other side of the board blocked him.

Frustrated, his avatar lost his cool and moved to sweep all the pieces off the shogi board with one swoop of his arm. Damned if he was going to play anymore! This game was over.

There was a clatter of tiles and tearing of fabric. The hooded player leaned forward to protect the board, and its cloak got caught in mental Shikamaru's fingers. The cloth tore and slipped away. His opponent shook her head. A quartet of blond ponytails rustled. Sea green eyes glared at him, affronted.

She was inside his head? Temari? The only people who appeared to play shogi with him were people he respected... people he cared about... people he...

The shogi playing Temari pursed her lips and snorted as if to say "What an idiot." One hand reached inside a fold of her kimono and produced a red velvet drawstring bag. Placing it reverently on the shogi board, she loosened the drawstring and then upended it. A rain of Shogi tiles fancier than any Shikamaru had ever seen clattered out. One side had tiles of buffed gold, the character's ranks painted in ebony enamel. The other was a deep green imperial jade, the symbol for each piece highlighted in silver wire. With practiced hands she quickly set up these new pieces into the exact positions of the previous game. A finger slid his promoted rook from its position of attack, back to its original square, conceding ground. Instead, she reached over to his knight, shifting it to a far forward position.

Shikamaru stared at the board, hesitating. That was... an unusual move. It was worthless from a strategic standpoint. It didn't even make any sense as a sacrificial piece for setting up an attack… He tentatively reached for his dragon again, and again the mental image of Temari stopped him.

He glared at her. Damned if he was going to withdraw from this fight. The troublesome woman had started it all! Acting like she was insane! Why should he be the one to apologize? He didn't do anything wrong! Inside his head the Temari avatar tapped the knight tile again, more insistently this time.

The sound of pages fluttered like pigeons in a hurricane. Again the voice of the Nameless shinobi from the Icha-Icha series echoed in his head.

_...There was nothing left to do but profess my true hidden feelings for her, this lovely princess of the land of trees. I got down on bended knee and prostrated myself before her, reciting my favorite couplet:_

"_Such is my love for thee,_

_To thee I so belong,_

_That for thy comfort, for thy sake,_

_I myself will bear all wrongs."_

Did he… love her? He found himself pressing his fingertips and thumbs together and staring at the floor. That was far better than staring at her with his mouth hanging open while he tried to figure out the answer to this question.

Did he love her? His head certainly seemed to be trying to tell him he did, but his brain also hadn't been at the top of its game as of late. He only played mental shogi with the most important people in his life. Did he think she was pretty? Yes, but pretty girls were everywhere. Was she intelligent? Undoubtedly, some of the more entertaining arguments he'd ever had were with her. Did she frighten him? That was a resounding yes… but at the same time, it was kind of exciting to play this game knowing the stakes were so high. Did he find her physically attractive? Well, they were sitting naked, on her bed, in her tent… which is how this current fight got started in the first place. Did he like her? Again… naked… in tent… Q.E.D.

Did he love her?

That question caused a stunned panic in his brain. He just couldn't deal with it right now.

Out of desperation, Shikamaru turned his mind's eye back to the shogi board. His knight was placed in a lousy position to attack the opposing king… but in a near optimal position to protect it. He looked up at the little Temari in surprise, and she in turn gave him a smile and a nod. From the floor she picked up one of the scattered plain wooden shogi tiles, a silver general. She moved it all around the golden king setting up various attacks that would leave it in check, were it not for the fact that his knight was adding to the opposing king's defense. Her demonstration done, the avatar of Temari contemptuously tossed the wooden silver general over her shoulder.

He took a deep breath and studied the real Temari. She was upset, very upset and striking out at everything he did… an incredible shift from how she was acting before… He took another look at his mental shogi board. Her king was all walled up right now. Okay, so she was defending herself, he got that… but what was the deal with his mind telling him to defend her as well? I mean, it didn't make sense for two opposing players to…

He almost gasped with surprise as his brain made the first real logical leap he'd had since the end of the Fourth war. There was another player affecting the board here. He might not be on it, and he might not be playing, but he was definitely affecting Temari's moves and her strategy. She wasn't reacting to his actions per se, she was reacting to someone else… someone who hurt her… betrayed her… and now, for whatever reason, she was expecting him to do the same.

He would bet money that it was Gorou. From the other side of the game board, the Temari avatar rolled her eyes and shook her head with disdain. He could almost hear her say: 'Took you long enough.'

He sighed and sat up straighter on the cot. "You know… If I ever meet this Gorou guy… I think I just might just punch him in the face."

* * *

The first mistake she made in trying to convey to Shikamaru that he needed to keep his mouth shut, was trying to talk to him while she was so angry. This was new for her, this… inability to remain... calm… controlled... especially around him. It was… well, to steal his own phrase, it was troublesome. The second mistake she made, was trying to have this whole discussion without once mentioning Gorou or her father. He was a Leaf shinobi. He had no business knowing anything about the inner politics of Suna. Gods only knew what Konoha would use in a political move against them at some hypothetical point in the future.

That had made perfect logical sense right up until she opened her mouth and realized, that by not telling him anything, she sounded like she was having a psychotic episode, a la Gaara before Naruto beat some sense back into him.

The third mistake was to assume that he would just cowardly knuckle under this time... Like he always did when she yelled at him.

He was taking forever to respond. The silence kept stretching on and on. Through all her seething ire, there began to prick a single icy needle of fear. Fear that maybe... she had crossed a line with him.

She had never worried about crossing lines before.

He took a deep breath and sat up straighter on the cot. "You know… If I ever meet this Gorou guy… I think I just might just punch him in the face."

Temari nearly jumped out of her skin. Thankfully he wasn't watching her; Shikamaru was staring down at his hands while he talked. "I know that sounds really weird coming from me in particular, I mean, I'm the last type of guy you'd expect to go around hitting people… And I'm also pretty sure that if I did find him and punch him… well that would start a whole other fight between us." His mouth twisted upwards in a knowing smile, but he kept looking down. "You'd yell at me for days, telling me how you were capable of fighting your own battles… But even so… I'm not sure I'd be able to stop myself… I mean, whatever happened to you…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Whatever really happened to you... to cause you, of all people, to freak out like this... must have been pretty… bad."

She kept staring at the wall, unsure if she should be more upset he had figured that much out or slightly relieved that all of her issues weren't openly on display. He'd been so dense lately, so naive, so easily surprised, that she'd completely forgotten all about his unnaturally ability to see patterns in the data and come up with conclusions. How had she forgotten that?

He glanced up at her, his face radiating nothing but concern. "But you know, If you did want to talk about it…?" She snorted once and then quickly turned away and stared at the canvas wall. Even if he had figured out that Gorou was involved… there was no way she was going to purposefully reveal anything else about the inner politics of Suna. She might… like him, but he was still a Konoha shinobi, there was a limit to how much she trusted him with strategic information. "Or not… you don't have to if you don't want to," he said quietly. "I mean, Ino is always says that a girl needs to keep a few good secrets to maintain her air of mystery, but, you know, if you did feel like you ever needed to talk… I'm willing to listen… to anything… even if it's just you telling me what a sad pathetic excuse for a shinobi I am."

He was a sad, pathetic, excuse for a shinobi… letting his emotions get the better of him like this. A Hidden Sand shinobi knew better than to open themselves up to such weakness.

All her life, anger had been what she had reached for when she was in an awkward situation. Rage had fueled her when she was lonely, when she was feeling inadequate, when she was weak, when she had nothing else to sustain her. It was all she could ever count on… her family was not known for being comforting or touchy-feely. Her Father always said he was too busy to deal with whiners. Kankuro had his puppets, Gaara was a monster.

She was old enough, when her mother died, to still had some memories of her holding her, tickling her, comforting her when she was upset, but they were old and well faded… hidden behind years of built up emotional control… or at least, that's where they should have been stored. The way she was right now, with her barriers damaged, they were slowly creeping up into her mind.

Shikamaru was waiting for a response from her. Temari kept herself quiet. After a moment, he cleared his throat and crept closer to her on the cot. His knee was brushing up against her foot. "You asked me to apologize for laughing at you… and I wasn't going to do it at first because I… thought you were being unreasonable… but now…" he sighed. "If it would help to make you feel better…" He reached out for her hand. "I'm sorry Temari… Forgive me?"

His fingers gave hers a gentile squeeze. She didn't squeeze back though, she was still angry. "It wasn't for laughing… it was because you called me pathetic," she heard herself say in a hoarse whisper. "You said I was a disappointment."

"Ah. You misheard me. I wasn't calling you a disappointment; I was saying I was a disappointment." Another smirk spread across his face. "I'm the pathetic excuse for a shinobi around here, remember? But I can easily apologize for that too." He squirmed even closer. Now their thighs were touching side by side. "I apologize that I am such a disappointing human being." He carefully slipped an arm around her. His skin felt wonderful sliding across hers. "In fact, right now, I offer you a blanket apology for everything offensive that I have ever done and will ever do." He bowed his head and leaned it against hers. "But I promise you this… I never have and never will knowingly do anything to hurt you."

The anger slowly receded. So did the hurt. So did the fear. All those untidy, unacceptable, improper emotions were slowly sliding back behind her armor where they belonged. The huge yawning hole in the thick wall of stone surrounding her heart was slowly filling back in, leaving him safely on the outside.

At least that is what it should have done. But right now... now that somehow he had wormed his way past her armor, she found herself… slightly hesitant to lock him out again. He was nice. He was comforting. He was a good kisser.

He had just promised he would never hurt her.

"This was all my fault." He shifted his head up slightly and kissed her forehead. "Everything is my fault." When she didn't pull away he kissed each of her eyelids. "My fault and no one else's," he murmured, kissing his way down her arm, her wrist, her hand. He kissed each of her fingertips, all the while muttering about how sorry he was.

Temari let out a sigh and opened her eyes. She hadn't minded the apologizing at first, but now… Now he was starting to turn into an annoying idiot. He was absolutely overdoing it. She really wanted him to shut up about it… mostly because he was making a fool out of himself, but partly because she was starting to feel just a little bit… guilty about her outburst. "Would you just... stop it with the apology nonsense," she muttered, "It... wasn't... fair of me to blame you… It's not... all your fault... I guess."

At first, his only reply was to just keep kissing her. She tilted her head back, as Shikamaru continued to nuzzle her face and hair. It did feel good. "Yes it is. It's definitely my fault. I just can't control myself around you. Your natural beauty just overwhelms me every waking moment."

She felt herself smile weakly "Really? Did you honestly think you'd be able to win anyone over with cheesy sub-par flattery like that?" she asked in a half hearted, teasing way.

He ignored the question, but continued letting his fingers roam over her neck and back. They paused over a thin ridge of scar tissue just under her left shoulder blade. "What's this from?" he asked interestedly.

Temari pursed her lips. "An ambush in the Land of Rivers. Took a shuriken to the back," she said tersely.

Shikamaru nodded and gave the old wound a quick peck. "And this one?" he asked tapping a finger on a ring of shiny pulled flesh running around her right calf.

"Mission against some smugglers. We were hired by a local merchant group. Turns out the smugglers had hired Hidden Mist shinobi for protection. One of them had a snapping turtle as a summons. I got my fan wedged in between his jaws just in the nick of time."

Shikamaru nodded and again gave the jagged, looping scar a kiss. "How about this one?" He pointed to a puckered spot just above her left elbow.

Temari looked away. "Hidden Sound village. After the death of... the fourth Kazekage, the council decided there needed to be... reprisals."

He paused for a handful of heartbeats. "Do you... miss him? Your father?" There was the hint of a quaver in his voice.

"A Suna shinobi controls their emotions and does their duty," she said flatly. He took her face gently in his hands and kissed her on the lips.

Then he pulled away, nodding as if his kiss never interrupted their conversation. "I miss mine," he admitted sourly. "A lot. I haven't had a good night's sleep in almost a month now. It's weird... we spent most of our lives missing each other." He gave her a faint smirk, "We were both trying to avoid my mother," he said by way of an explanation. "The only time I ever saw him was over a shogi board. At the time, I kind of thought it was cool to have a dad who was so laid back, who never bossed me around who let me do whatever I wanted... but now, I really wish I spent more time with him. I keep thinking about all the things I wanted to say, and all the things I wanted to ask and..." His voice trailed off and he let his shoulders droop.

Temari opened her mouth a millimeter and then shut it quickly. Shikamaru noticed. "Go ahead... you can say it… what a pathetic excuse of a shinobi I am."

"Actually..." she paused and cleared her throat. "I was going to say... I'm sorry." She was half surprised to find that she really was sorry. She relaxed her legs and let them slide out in front of her. Her whole body started to feel limp and rubbery. The tension drained away and words started to spill from her lips. "My... father, the Kazekage was a very... hard man. It was a stressful time for our village and... he… reflected those times." A shudder ran down her body. "He was noble man... my father... very dedicated... He always... put the needs of our village before... everything else." Another shiver wracked her shoulders. "He was so… easily disappointed with my brothers and me… He p-pushed himself… very hard and expected us to do the s-same…" She stopped and hugged herself tightly about her waist. "M-must be getting c-cold in here," she stammered.

Shikamaru didn't say anything; he just wrapped his arms and legs around her, hugging her from behind. Temari bowed her head as he comforted her, and soon the tremors passed.

She turned in his embrace. "Thank you... for warming me up," she clarified, bringing her lips closer to his.

Shikamaru nodded. "You're welcome," he whispered, right before they kissed.


	5. Chapter 5

Shikamaru never suspected while he was reading it, but _Make Out Tactics_ apparently had more practicality contained within it's pages than the typical mass marketed titillation paperback. Those sweaty palmed hours of his youth, quickly leafing through the book, all the while keeping a paranoid eye out for his mother, were apparently well spent. Under the keen tutelage of Temari, the mental shogi master, it was proving to be a valuable resource for guidance and strategy. _Change subjects, be calm, be tender… don't be afraid to talk, women love a man who can show their feelings... and above all... Romance, romance, romance._

After their little… argument… and subsequent apologies, things had… well, sort of gotten back to the way they had been. He and Temari were kissing and hugging and fondling, but there was a hint of wariness, or maybe uncertainty to it all. It was nice, but it was nothing like the raw passion that had been going on before her little… episode. It was like they were pretending the fight had never happened even though it was fairly obvious that it was still lurking in their thoughts.

So Shikamaru decided to take the advice of the indomitable Jiraiya… He started talking up a storm, telling her about everything and anything he could think of… Stories about growing up, playing hooky from school, stories about the first few missions with Asuma-sensei, times he got into trouble with his mother…

Temari laughed at his stories, or smiled at least, and that did wonders towards relaxing the situation even more, but it was becoming clear she still had some kind of… reservation. She wasn't turning him away, but she sure wasn't taking charge like she had earlier. She would chat with him, but it was small talk, all harmless little inconsequential things. Every time he tried to ask a question, or lead the conversation towards her past, she would deflect it back on him.

To tell the truth, on his mental shogi board, it was starting to look like this evening would end in a draw. He could continue playing this game, but it was becoming a series of purely defensive moves, a pattern of feint after feint designed to maintain the status quo. His most powerful piece, that promoted rook, was doing nothing but hiding at the back of board. Without it he didn't have the power to confidently mount an offensive.

Didn't have the confidence that is, until the Temari avatar seized little Shikamaru's hand, causing him to deftly move a knight, capture a bishop and in the next two moves, turned and promoted it, opening up a whole new world of possibilities. Again, he heard the pages of the Icha-Icha novel turning in his head.

_...Akamina-sama, most treacherous and nubile of all the Demon Queens, wiped my spilled seed from her chin and chortled. "Give up Shinobi," she rasped, her red eyes flashing beneath her curved horns. "You have lost this wager! I have outwitted you! You shall never be able to pleasure me in that flaccid state. Your soul, and that of your foolish apprentice are mine!"_

"_Never!" I cried with a lusty grin. "You underestimate me your majesty!" With one deft move I lay her down on her infernal bedding and spread her legs wide. "For as long as I have fingers and a tongue I shall never yield!"_

"_Be strong my boy!" I called out to my loyal student, bound and gagged and being lightly spanked in the corner, "I give you my word, I shall save you from these succubi yet!"_

It was quite the forward move on his part. One might almost say it was a daring move. He grinned up at Temari and thought to himself "Me…being daring… I wonder what she'll make of this?"

She gave him a suspicious look. "What are you smiling about?"

"Do you know what I like most about you?" he said softly, kissing her on the neck.

The surprise at his comment flickered across her face for an instant. She recovered and raised a cocky eyebrow. "I'm astonished you can choose just one of my many stellar attributes." She tilted her head to one side proffering her ear up to him as he nibbled.

She was flirting with him again. Good. This might actually work. "Hmm… that's true," he said thoughtfully as he nuzzled her. "You are certainly a wonder to behold… But what amazes me the most… is the way you inspire me to try new things… go to new heights," he muttered in her ear. While she snuggled up against his kisses, his free hand gently massaged its way down her chest. "I think it's my turn to see what makes you feel good." He brushed past her breasts, traced a lazy circle around her belly button, and carefully reached down past her waist.

Temari stiffened for a second as his fingers trailed through the coarser hair between her legs. He let his hand rest there for a few seconds as he covered her face, neck and chest with delicate kisses. Just as his mouth found her nipple again, he slid his fingers forward, and, with just a small hesitation, her legs parted.

He followed Jiraiya's description of what the nameless hero did to the Demon Queen almost exactly. First he applied gentle pressure to the lips of her sex. A soft continuous circle of rubbing. Temari rewarded him with a small cry of surprise when his index and ring fingers spread her slit open and he lay his middle finger in amongst her warmth.

His index finger joined it as he explored her folds. He found her opening, and as he gently probed it, a slick wetness dampened his hand. Temari's breath was once again coming in fast pants, and the sound of it started a warm tingle that ran from the middle of his chest to his groin. Temari made a small noise, something between a grunt and a squeak, and as she did so opened her legs just a little bit more. He took that as an invitation and slowly slid the tip of his finger inside of her.

Given his previous experience a few minutes earlier, he was expecting more resistance, but it slid in easily up to the second knuckle. Temari grunted, and raised her hips, rocking against his hand. Shikamaru smiled. It was time for stage two. Abandoning her breasts, he marched his kisses even lower, moving down her ribcage, running his tongue down her stomach and stopping at her pelvis. He lifted his head slightly and looked at her.

So... That was what they were always covering up with censor bars in the hentai manga. Hmmm... interesting. He wriggled himself between her thighs and planted a kiss on the top of her mound. Then he planted one lower.

* * *

Temari had been enjoying all the attention he was giving her. It wasn't often that someone sat down with her and just… treated her like she was an ordinary person, talking to her openly and honestly. It was nice, but in some way, it kept emphasizing everything she had missed out on while she was growing up… how life had a nasty habit of reminding her that she would never be 'ordinary'.

Then Shikamaru started laying on the flattery again. It was cheesy, it was corny, but at the same time… she liked it. It's hard to be depressed about the past when someone in the present is telling you how wonderful you are. And suddenly, just as she was starting to feel like she was getting back to her old self; Shikamaru declared "I think it's my turn to see what makes you feel good."

She figured out what he was planning on doing pretty quickly. At first she wasn't so sure she was comfortable with him putting his mouth there… By his own admission, he didn't have any experience with such things… but after a brief inner debate, she decided it would probably be okay… after all she had… toyed with him earlier, so seeing what it felt like for a minute or two wouldn't be such a big deal.

That 'minute or two' went on… and on… Once he started kissing her down there… Oh, my… it just felt so good she didn't want him to stop. She didn't think she could stop it. Her body started to rise up against him. His fingers felt a hundred times better than just rubbing against him had, and then when he put one inside of her... It was night and day. It just slid right in. A rolling wave of heat seemed to pour down from her stomach and down her legs. Everything started to tingle.

He pursed his lips and blew a warm puff or air across her inner folds. She shivered with the sensation. Then he worked his tongue, fluttering this way and that, matching his licking with the strokes of his fingers. Somehow, with her eyes closed and her back arched, her hands still found the sides of his head, and she sandwiched it in between them, "Oh... Shikamaru," she moaned.

He paused and looked up. She could hear the grin in his voice. "Shh! Don't interrupt me, I'm doing research here."

* * *

He went through the mental checklist. Probe with finger, check. Once moistness is felt, use tongue to increase sensitivity, check. Find the small nodule Jiraiya referred to as 'the seed of the gods' with tongue, check. Once found, proceed to tease said seed with tongue and lips in a completely, near random pattern paying careful attention to which actions the lady seems to appreciate the most... Shikamaru smirked as Temari moaned again... Definitely check.

In the Icha-Icha series, the nameless shinobi / poet preferred to use the hiragana alphabet, claiming he had composed some of his finest sonnets in this way... Shikamaru was particularly proud of his own twist he was putting on that method. He was playing shogi, tracing out the movement of the various pieces around her clitoris. Temari particularly seemed to enjoy a vigorous exchange involving the capture of a silver general, an exchange of knights and rooks, and then the promotion of a pawn. He made sure to replay it several times.

He lifted his head, grinning like the cat that caught the proverbial canary. "So this is oka... Umph!" Temari didn't let him finish his sentence; she just pushed his head back down between her thighs.

"I guess I can't be doing that bad a job," he thought to himself, continuing to slide his finger in and out while lapping away. He decided to see what would happen if he added his middle finger into the mix. Her vaginal vault tightened as he slowly prodded his way in with the second finger together with the first. There was a brief moment where he worried this wasn't going to go well, but then everything relaxed and he slid deeper into her than before.

Almost immediately Temari's fingers clenched tight in his hair. "Oh... oh... oh!" She moaned. A tremor built in her moist passageway, and vibrated its way down into her legs. Soon her back was arching up against him as her fists tried to pull his mouth and fingers harder and deeper against her.

* * *

Temari clamped her jaw as tight as she could, but the restrained cry of pleasure could still be heard escaping from her throat. Her orgasm passed in a huge shaking avalanche, crashing over and through her. Little by little it lessened in intensity. She could only relax herself millimeters at a time. The last thing she did was untangle her fingers from Shikamaru's hair.

She collapsed down on the cot and almost immediately, lifted her head back up again. "Ow!" she grumbled.

Shikamaru's head popped up at her cry. He was using his fingers to pull at his tongue. His question, "Are you okay?" came out muffled.

Temari nodded. "I lay back on the pony tails." She watched him scrabble around in his mouth. "Are you okay? That... well, that couldn't have tasted good."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Tasted fine." Finding what he was looking for, he grunted with approval and pulled a dark brown curl from his lips. "I just had a hair in my mouth," he said sheepishly. He studied her for a moment before clambering up next to her. "Here," he said tenderly. He cradled her neck and began pulling out her hair ties, one by one.

Temari loved feeling his body next to her and practically preened under his touch. "You're very good at that," she hummed, a delicious warm wave coursing from his fingertips.

He shrugged. "Eh... It's just practice. I've been taking out my own pony tail, since my hair grew long enough to have one."

Temari found herself giggling. "Actually I was talking about when you... um..." her voice faded away shyly.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and almost smiled. "Well… this is unusual."

"What is?"

He waved his hand at her. "Seeing you flustered like that..." He lay down next to her. "And with your hair down too, I guess." He rested against her side, skin coated with a fine sheen of sweat. "You're beautiful with your hair down," he said, running his fingers through it.

What did he just say? She couldn't let him get away with that! "Did you just call me flustered?"

"Yup," he said with a slow nod. "You look adorable."

Temari propped herself up with one arm. "Temari no Sabaku does not get 'flustered'!" she declared.

He smirked. "It doesn't happen that often, I'll give you that, but it does happen. The first time was when I beat you at the chunin exams."

"You?! Beat me?! Hah! As I recall it was you who surrendered!"

"The purpose of the Chunin exams is to prove that you are worthy to be a chunin," he said looking smug. "Not to intentionally beat the snot out of people. As I recall… only one of us became a chunin."

She leaned over him. "And yet… right now… only one of us is a jonin."

He wasn't listening. "You were standing there, all tensed up waiting for the finishing blow, and then when I said "I quit!' Heh… you went all wide eyed and slack jawed… It was so incredibly cute."

"Cute? Cute?! I'll give you cute…" She rolled over on top of him, pinning him to the mattress.

"Hey!" he yelped, trying to wriggle free, but being an only child, he obviously didn't have the experience in play fighting that she did.

She ended up holding down his arms and had her shins across his knees. "I challenge you to a rematch Nara… right here and now!" She let him squirm for a little bit, before leaning down, her face centimeters from his. "Looks like victory is mine yet again," she whispered triumphantly. She looked at the dour expression on his face and promptly dissolved into a fit of the giggles.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome woman," he grumbled under his breath, but he was smiling as he did so. He kissed her again, deeply this time. She let his tongue explore her mouth. It was beginning to get warmer in the tent. The sounds of the celebration could still be heard floating faintly through the night air outside.

* * *

Shikamaru kissed her shoulder, her neck, her forehead, her nose and her lips all in a series and then went back to playing with her hair. Her cheeks were still awash with color, and her eyes sparkled like the sun reflecting off the ocean.

"Wow, I guess I am turning into a poet," he thought to himself. He trailed his hand up over her hip and across her stomach, she quivered a little as he brushed her ribcage, but relaxed as his fingers kept moving, stopping to rest between her breasts. He felt the beating of her heart, a fast staccato, thumping against his palm. "I could get used to this," he thought happily to himself.

* * *

Temari loved the way his hands crept over her, his kisses left blooming petals of heat in their wake. She loved talking to him, teasing him… his banter and his tenderness. There was one phrase, wistfully echoing around in her head, "I could get used to this." Wherever it went in her mind, it left behind it a fleeting trail of sadness.

Sooner or later, this night would have to end.

She pushed that thought away. She was with him, here and now, she was with him, and this moment was the only one that mattered. He must have seen something in her face, because he was looking at her with his eyebrow raised. Temari shook her head, half relishing the way her unbridled hair fluttered free around her face. Smiling she cupped his face with one hand and kissed him pulling his lip into her mouth. "It's nothing," she whispered.

"Are you sure?"

The tip of her nose touched his. "You worry too much." She snuggled up close and kissed him again. They started making out again, not overzealously this time, but a slow exploring of each other's bodies. She wanted every inch of herself to be covered by him, she wanted to work the memory of him into her skin, into her very bones. She wanted to burn his taste and his smell into her memory and carry it with her always.

She shivered as Shikamaru's hand curved around her butt and stroked its way around between her legs. His fingers found her slit again. A rhythmic pulse of warmth coursed through her loins when he began massaging her. Temari grunted and began pressing up against his thigh. A few moments later, something warm and stiff was poking her in the stomach. Temari pulled closer nuzzling her cheek against his. "Want to try again?" she murmured. He kissed her and nodded his head against hers.

* * *

She started to get up to grab her equipment pouch again, but Shikamaru waved her back. "I got it," he muttered proudly. An inky black tendril of shadow twisted its way off the bed, coiled around the small rucksack and pulled it up onto the sheets.

Temari grinned. "Well, aren't you useful?" She placed the condoms within easy reach and shoved the sack back on the floor.

"Um, didn't you want to be using those?" he found himself asking, confused.

Temari shrugged. "When we're ready... I thought we could... play... a little bit first."

He could never pass up an opening like that. He smiled good-naturedly. "You want to play first? Okay. That's fine by me, I'm always up for a round or two of shogi," he said teasingly.

She gave him her infamous 'The only reason I haven't killed you yet is that I'm not quite sure where I would hide the body' glare… only this time he could see the glimmer of flirtation in her sea green eyes. "Oh… I'll give you more than a round or two," she purred deep in the back of her throat. Hovering over the mental shogi board inside his head, little Shikamaru and little Temari twitched their fingers in anticipation.

Like a good game of shogi, things started off slow. The first objective is, after all, to set up an appropriate castle for the king, and kings can only move one square at a time. Setting up the playing field was a vast array of small almost innocent moves, a kiss here a caress there. until finally all the various strategies are set up, and everyone is ready for the game to begin in earnest.

Next in shogi comes the mid game. The weaker pieces are deployed in the attempt to open up holes in your opponent's defense. Knights, bishops, lances and pawns charge across the board to capture and be captured. Tongues and love bites come into play. The soft caress becomes the firm massage, the grasping pull. Bodies slide against each other slick with sweat, acting out motions that aren't quite happening yet, but will soon.

And finally… the endgame. Defenses are shattered. Then all the well laid plans vanish in an organic spontaneous whirl of attack and counter. Things start to move faster, and every move counts. The last goal is to capture your opponent's king before they capture yours.

He was between her thighs, kissing and nibbling her neck, as Temari rolled the condom down the length of him. She kept her hand there, guiding him on his approach.

There was a brief moment of wondrous resistance, and then the head of his member was encased in a dreamy warm wetness.

He pushed forward... slowly. Little by little she began to envelop him. He stopped abruptly as she hissed. Shikamaru started to back out, but Temari grabbed him by the hip and shoulder and didn't let him move. "I'll be fine," she insisted, "Just... wait a second."

He leaned forward and kissed her eyebrows. "No problem... I can wait… take as long as you need." His fingers brushed her flank while he nuzzled her neck.

After a short pause she gave his pelvis a slight nudge forward. "Okay," she muttered, "keep going... just... go slow."

Shikamaru did as she asked. He went slow... so slow that he was surprised when he realized there was there was nowhere left to go. He looked down but Temari's eyes were still lined with concentration. Watching her face for cues he began to pull himself very slowly out again.

He kept moving like that, using long slow thrusts, until she exhaled smoothly and started to relax. Tentatively, he felt her lift her hips and make a gentle push against him. "Is it better now?" he asked.

Temari opened her eyes, the corners of her mouth twitched in a smile. "I think... I think… yeah, its better... I'm getting used to it."

Shikamaru couldn't resist the jab, "It's because I have such a mammoth cock... Isn't it?"

She shook her head, but smiled "You are such an idiot," she grumbled, pushing against him once more.

Their tempo increased. So did the friction.

Very quickly Shikamaru realized he should be very thankful that Temari had... manipulated things... earlier. There was no way he could have lasted this long without it. His breath was beginning to come in faster pants. Holding himself above her was getting harder and harder by the stroke, so he started letting her support more and more of his weight. He could feel her breasts pushing up against him, jiggling with every thrust. Her one hand was playing with his hair, while the other traced a small circle at the base of his spine. "Oh Temari," he groaned. He found her mouth and began plastering it with kisses. He opened his eyes.

She was lying there, staring up at him, smiling. It was a little disconcerting. "Do you... Feel okay?" he asked breathlessly.

* * *

Temari found herself still smiling. "I'm fine... Gods you're adorable." And he was... She never expected to see that type of lip biting, grunting concentration on his face.

She did feel okay. That was the truth. It's just that... well... it was only... okay. Once she got used to having Shikamaru's dick (and she so did not believe that that was what he called it) inside her, things stopped feeling like she had to stretch out a muscle cramp, and they did start to feel 'good'.

The thing was... compared to when he was using his fingers and his tongue... this was not as… mind numbingly fantastic.

Still, it wasn't bad. It felt… good enough. And Shikamaru was definitely beginning to go crazy on top of her. That in itself made it worth it.

But of course Mister Sensitivity would pick up on this and instantly assume that there was something wrong. "Is there something else you would..."

"Shikamaru," she sighed, "I'm fine, this is fine, everything is fine. Sometimes... " She took a deep breath and tried to explain. "Everything doesn't have to result in an orgasm... you know?"

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, as if he were listening to a voice that only he could hear. "Hold on," he said sitting slightly more upright. "I want to try something different."

"Try what?" Temari asked hesitantly. Shikamaru made a hand sign and small forest of creeping shadow vines appeared and twisted themselves gently yet firmly around her arms and legs. "Hey!" she barked "No kinky stuff!"

Shikamaru smirked, and kissed her. "Wouldn't dream of it," he said. The vines cradled her, picking her up and carrying her with him as Shikamaru rolled over onto his back.

The shadows vanished as she sat there, astride his pelvis. She looked down at him as his hands rubbed up her arms, over her shoulders, and over her chest. "What do you think?"

He was playing with her breasts again, and well, that was a nice addition. Temari shrugged. "Eh, it's okay, but it's not that much of an... Oh!" while she was talking Shikamaru slid his hands down over her hips, and pulled her onto him.

He was inside her, deeper than before, and as he moved out he rubbed in new places. He was hitting a completely different spot. He pushed her down on him again, and again she grunted. She found herself rocking forward to meet him with each thrust. "Is that better?" he asked. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. All she could do was nod.

A tingling warmth started in her lower back and spread down through her hips and into her legs. A long low moan escaped her lips. It was getting harder to stay upright so she leaned down over him, her nails digging into his shoulders. Shikamaru used this opportunity to kiss and suck on her nipples, massaging her breast with one hand while the other continued to pull her groin roughly into his. A hot pulse of desire slowly built in her lower abdomen and she found herself collapsing down on top of Shikamaru, repeatedly whispering his name in his ear.

* * *

The noises she was making were driving him wild. He thrust into her faster and faster. She cried out as she was riding him, pushing down on him with wanton abandon. He wasn't sure exactly when the tremors inside of her started, but there they were, throbbing and squeezing the whole length of him as he moved faster and faster. Shikamaru knew he wasn't going to be able to last for very much longer.

And then Temari leaned forward and called out his name in his ear. That pushed him right over the edge. He lifted his hips as he exploded with a strangled cry, pulling her to him as hard as he could. Temari cried out as well, grinding down on him, clamping down with her thighs, as her insides spasmed around him in a burst of pleasure. For the briefest of moments their voices harmonized with each other.

Then, with a tortured squeak of the cot's bedsprings, Shikamaru collapsed back down.

He kept moving inside of her, mostly because it still felt good, partly because it felt like the right thing to do. Temari shuddered on top of him with each push. Eventually, Musashi the Eternal Golden General decided his work here was done… and slowly faded away.

Her eyes were still closed as she shivered on top of him. He guided her face to his and gave her a deep passionate kiss. When he finished she opened her eyes, blinked and then gave him a look of such longing that it left him giddy. "Wow!" she said quietly.

"Wow!" he agreed.

* * *

As much as she wanted to keep lying here with him like this... there were things that needed doing. "Okay!" Temari said sitting up abruptly, "I need to... freshen up a bit, and you need to get rid of that thing there before you start leaking all over the place," she said brusquely.

"Oh," said Shikamaru his face going carefully blank, "Should I be... getting dressed?"

Temari tossed back her head and laughed. "No! Don't you dare think you can get out of here without holding me afterwards Mister!" He brightened up a little and started peeling off the condom.

Temari ducked behind her modesty screen and surveyed the damage. Not that much blood. That was good; there would be less 'evidence' to get rid of. She remembered hearing stories from when she was a child of several older Suna kunoichi who had claimed to have broken their maidenheads during training or combat missions, and of the scandal it caused. She remembered being terrified that same thing might happen to her.

Temari found herself smiling, it couldn't happen now… but it was good to know that she had an excuse if she ever needed one.

Her smile faltered. She didn't want to think about excuses… She just wanted to think about him.

She cleaned herself up. She could tell she would be sore in the morning, but it wasn't a bad kind of sore. She'd had much worse injuries, she could deal with it. Compared to having a rabid snapping turtle hanging off your leg, this would be nothing.

There were other issues to be taken care of as well. She was sweaty as hell. Her toweling off turned into a quick sponge bath, which turned into her deciding to re-apply the mild perfume she always wore. She brushed out her hair - it had gotten fairly mussed up, and finally as a finishing touch she decided to brush her teeth. She might as well... she had company, she thought with a grin.

One thing led to another. She found herself primping, primping for god's sake, and idly wondering if she brought any makeup with her. Temari forced herself to stop, glaring at her reflection in the small mirror. This was getting ridiculous! One night of sex and she was turning into some sort of giggling schoolgirl... Plus, she would have never packed makeup on a combat mission, she only ever wore the stuff for the most formal of occasions… and on top of that, Kankuro was always 'borrowing' it without asking and never giving it back… so really, there was no point in even looking.

She did however, give her hair one last quick brush and posed in front of the mirror. "I look damn hot!" she thought to herself grinning.

Feeling refreshed, but still naked, she almost danced out from behind the screen. "Hey Shikamaru… I still have one condom left," she said in a sultry voice, "Do you think you might..." Her sentence was interrupted by a quiet snore. Shikamaru was sprawled out on the bed, mouth open slightly.

"Lazy bum," she muttered, not very seriously. Tentatively, so as not to wake him, she crawled into the cot.

Temari held still as he stirred, mumbled something indistinct, and then threw one arm around her. She watched him, just to make sure he wasn't waking up, and then she gave him a delicate good night kiss. His mouth twitched up in a smile.

Nestled in his arms, she listened to the slow beat of his heart until she too began to drift off.


	6. Chapter 6

Shikamaru woke up at that moment where the black of night is just starting to turn into the first tinges of a grey morning.

The first thing he noticed was that every muscle in his back and behind was screaming in agony. The second thing was that his left side felt unaccountably warm. He cracked open an eyelid and looked down.

Temari was nestled against him, using his shoulder as a pillow. Her breath was puffing out, slow and even across his chest. One of her legs was thrown casually across his, and her left arm was wrapped firmly about his waist. When he tried to pull away to get comfortable, her brow creased and she grunted disapprovingly. The end result was that she gripped him tighter.

It had gotten warm and stuffy in the tent. So warm that little prickles of sweat were tickling their way out of his skin and starting a slow march down his chest. He watched one particularly large drip leave a wet trail down his side and land heavily right in between Temari's breasts. He laid back his head with a satisfied smirk on his face

Shikamaru never would have pictured her to be a snuggler. But here she was, clutching to him like he was the only life raft off of a sinking ship. One of the most feared kunoichi from the Hidden Sand village, curled up tightly against him, buck naked. He was grinning about it now. The idea that Temari no Sabaku just wanted to cuddle was almost enough to make him forget how much his butt was aching.

He wondered what his mother would say. Probably something like: "My Gods son! Temari no Sabaku?! What in the seven hells are you thinking?! She's a merciless killer! She tortures people for the fun of it! Are you out of your mind?"

He looked down at her again, watching her as she dozed. The merciless killer looked exactly like a sleeping angel. She wasn't a torturer at all... Although his shoulder was starting to get pins and needles.

He reached out and brushed back part of her bangs that was in danger of tickling her nose. This small movement was enough to make her stir.

She twitched and shook her head slightly. Her eyes opened just the smallest crease, and he could see the recognition of where she was filtering through her sleep addled mind. Her eyes darted around the room quickly and then settled on him. A sleepy yet pleased smile filled her whole face.

Shikamaru felt a warm, almost painful, swell of emotion build inside his chest. "Wha?" she grunted up at him, the ghost of that smile remaining on her lips.

"It was nothing... go back to sleep," he whispered.

"Nothing? What are you thinking, waking me up for nothing," she grumbled, but in a contented voice.

Shikamaru shrugged. "If you must know, I was wondering if you were as beautiful asleep as you were awake."

Temari yawned, and slid over on top of him, sending a yelp of pain down the nerve endings in his backside. "Inquisitive bastard," she said in a flattered way. "So what have you determined? Am I hotter awake or asleep?" She wriggled closer and kissed him quickly.

"I'd have to say it's a about a tie," Shikamaru added with forced cheer, his butt was really hurting now. "Hey Temari?" he asked slightly urgently "I need a favor... can I..."

"A tie huh?" she interrupted. "Well I guess that I can..." She stopped and blinked slowly. A troubled look passed quickly over her features. She sat up quickly. "Um... I'm going to need you to... I don't know... put your fingers in your ears or something for a minute or two." Her feet hopped to the floor and she ran off for a screened off corner of the tent.

"Huh? Why?"

She danced uncomfortably as she turned to glare at him. "Because I said so! Just do it, okay?!" Temari snapped as she hurled the modesty screen back into place. A few seconds later there was the sound of a fast stream of water tinkling in a pot.

It was all Shikamaru could do not to snicker. So, the cruelest kunoichi in the world was shy about going to the bathroom. As the thin waterfall continued, he began to feel a pressing need of his own. "Hey," he asked a little embarrassed, "are you going to be in there much longer?"

All sounds abruptly stopped. "I told you not to listen!" she growled from behind the screen.

"Sorry... sorry... It's just that I kinda have to go too," he finished sheepishly.

There was an ominous silence. "The public latrine is five tents left, then turn right and walk straight out of camp for about a hundred meters. Next to a small stand of trees," she said coldly.

"Well yeah, but it's cold outside and you've got a chamber pot right..."

"I am not sharing with you." Each word fell like a ton of granite from the sky, huge and immovable.

Shikamaru's bladder gave him another insistent nudge. He couldn't afford to stand here and argue. "What a drag," he grumbled and quickly started looking for his pants.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later he was in a near perfect state of blessed relief. It was all he could do to sigh contentedly as he let fly into the sanitation trench at his feet. Although he did casually wonder why he couldn't seem to pee straight and whether or not this might related to… certain activities.

It had certainly been a very... eventful evening. Thinking back on Temari writhing above him, calling out his name... well, it was enough to make the Eternal Golden General twitch in his hands.

It was like he was adrift in a warm, fluffy mental fog. If he thought about this logically, he knew he should find something like this very worrisome; it amazed him that he didn't. He was very, very content. He was very, very happy.

He was in love.

He felt like that admission should come as more of a shock, but it didn't.

He was in love... It was far less scary than he thought it would be, especially given the circumstances. He was in love with a very dangerous, cruel, somewhat unstable, violent woman three years older than himself, who wasn't even from the same village... and he felt good about it! It was amazing! He didn't even care what his mother would have to say!

He could just picture it. He would walk into the front door, Temari on his arm and say "Hi Mom, I want you to meet someone." After which, of course there would be seven kinds of hell to pay... But even that didn't seem to matter! Wow! It was truly fascinating. He started to whistle a cheery little tune.

There was a breeze as the tent flap behind him opened and closed. Someone stepped up to the trench next to him and let fly with a second stream.

Shikamaru snuck a glance at his early morning urinary companion and nearly dropped his willie on the double take.

It was Gaara. The Kazekage stared blearily ahead before giving himself a little shake and tucking himself back in his pants. He walked over to the 'sink', really just a basin next to a small barrel of water and a pot of chemical hand sanitizer.

Gaara washed his hands, dried them on a scrap of cloth and checked his reflection in the mirror. "Shikamaru?" he asked in a puzzled voice, "Is that you?"

"Kazekage-sama," he replied very formally, not sure what the proper protocol was for greeting the leader of a rival village at five AM in a public restroom.

"I almost didn't recognize you without your topknot," Gaara said in a dry rasp. "What are you doing here?"

Shikamaru shrugged. He was fully aware that saying 'I just slept with your sister' was bad politics no matter who you were talking to. "Oh... you know... taking a piss."

Gaara considered this. "Ah, I see," he said a little awkwardly. There was a long pause. "Well… I hope you have pleasant day." He turned and left the tent.

It was only after Shikamaru stepped out into the damp morning air that he realized there was no one at the shogi board in his head. It was even odder still that all the pieces were right where he remembered they should be, locked in a spiraling dance of pursuit and delay, a race to get the king.

He studied the board carefully. He couldn't remember the last time he hadn't 'finished a game'. After a moment he mentally shrugged and sauntered back to Temari's tent. Maybe little Shikamaru and little Temari went off somewhere to... enjoy themselves. That would be a nice parallel.

* * *

Temari heard him clomping up to the tent flap and took one quick moment to check over everything. She had felt a little bit bad about yelling at him… again, but if there was one thing she had learned from being the only girl in a house full of boys, it was that your own private bathroom was always worth insisting on and fighting for.

A brief moment of concern had flitted through her head when came back out from behind the privacy screen and noticed his clothes and shoes were gone. Temari had an uncharacteristic pang wondering if he might have left for good, but when she found his boxers still hanging atop her battle fan, she knew he'd be back.

She decided to make it up to him.

She had lit a candle, filling the tent with a soft light, a sheet was draped across her chest like so, strategically covering up some areas while leaving her legs and arms bare. She briefly tried to dangle her hair seductively over one shoulder, but it just wasn't long enough. Oh well, no use crying over what you can't do. As the flap opened, she double checked that her last remaining condom was just within reach, leaned back sexily and smiled in what she hoped was a confident way.

Shikamaru froze as he saw her lounging there. "Hi!' she said brightly, biting back a giggle from the look on his face.

He didn't smile, not really, but his lips twitched and his eyes lit up. "Hi yourself... I was a bit worried you weren't going to let me back in."

She pretended to be affronted, and stared down at her toes. "Well, I did have to think about it… I was pretty mad at you, you know." Temari swung her legs over the side of the cot and swung them idly back and forth. She let herself have a small triumphant smile. Shikamaru was standing there hypnotized by every flash of her inner thighs.

He swallowed and pulled his eyes away. "Like I said, I'm sorry. I just really had to go... Forgive me?"

"Hmpf," she grunted, turning her head haughtily. "I'm not sure if there is anything you could do to get me to forgive you..."

He picked up on the cue. "Really?" he asked, his smile finally breaking through, "Not anything?"

Temari glanced back and stared at him up and down. This whole night was like some sort of wonderful dream. He was smart, he was witty, he was cute too, in a slouchy, surly sort of way. He could dance, he was interesting to be around, and best of all he seemed to actually enjoy being with her. Every fibre of her being was tingling with the anticipation of being touched by him again. Gods, she was acting like such a fool... and she was enjoying it.

She finished her examination and smiled up at him. "Well I couldn't think of anything," she teased. "Maybe you could devise some way that might get you back in my good graces?" She curled her legs up underneith herself and tried to look sensuous.

He was such a smart boy. He took the invitation and sat down on the cot. "Hmm, that sounds tricky," he replied. "I'll have to think long and hard and come up with something extra special." He ran his fingertips over her toes, up her calves and under the sheet.

"Mmm." The small happy sound escaped her lips as he stroked her. She leaned forward and kissed him.

It was getting late… or was it early? Temari gave a small shake of her head. Whatever time it was, if they were going to have sex again, they'd have to hurry… other people would be up soon. "I think you might be wearing a few too many clothes, Nara-san," she said, playing with the bottom of his shirt. She gave him a quick kiss as she started rolling it up. "Has anyone ever told you how sexy you look with your hair down like that?"

He gave her the most incredulous look. "Really?"

"Really. It makes you look so... wild and untamed." She kissed him again and pulled the shirt up and over his head.

He let out a small laugh as his head was covered. "Gaara said he couldn't recognize me with my topknot out."

It felt like she had been suddenly plunged into ice water. "What?" she asked, hands dropping away.

Shikamaru squirmed his way out of his own shirt. "Gaara, your brother. I bumped into him in the latrine."

And just like that the dream was over.

* * *

Shikamaru smiled at her as he worked his head free. "So anyway, I was thinking that maybe we could..." He took one look at her face and felt his smile drain off his face. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"You talked to Gaara," she said flatly.

He reached out for her hand. "Don't worry… I'm not stupid. I didn't say anything about... well about us. We just sort of said 'Hi' in passing."

She pulled her hand away. "That doesn't matter... He saw you! He knows you were here in the Suna camp!" Slowly her head rose and she looked at him with inscrutable eyes. "Everyone saw us dancing together. Everyone saw us leave together. Sooner or later someone will piece it all together!" She pressed both hands up to her face. "Damnit! I've been so stupid!"

He started to caress her arm. Again she tried to pull away but this time he caught her. "Look," he insisted a hint of desperation creeping into his voice, "I can understand why you're upset, but this is nothing like… your situation with Gorou okay?" Shikamaru took a deep breath and steeled himself. "Temari... look... I swear I will never do anything that will..."

"You think that this is about me getting hurt? I thought you were supposed to be this huge genius?" Temari shrank back and folded her arms about herself. "My name is Temari no Sabaku. Temari of the Sand. Do you know what that means?"

Shikamaru nodded. "You belong to one of the founding clans in Suna… Your family is old blood, like the Senju clan in the Leaf. Gaara is the third member of your clan to become Kazekage."

She turned up her head and sighed to the ceiling. "The villagers of Suna aren't like the happy go lucky shinobi you'll find skipping around the Hidden Leaf. Since the founding of our village, the only things that have kept us all alive through sandstorms, famine, bandit attacks and multiple wars are strength, discipline, and honor." Temari glanced down and gave him a semi-disgusted look. "We don't elect our Kage through some quasi-parliamentary system like you do… currying favors, making trade deals, securing a bid for the Hokage's seat with promises of leadership positions going to supporting clan heads… Our leaders are chosen by their blood, for their strength… and sometimes just to take the fall for everything that is going wrong."

Shikamaru watched her face grow cold and hard. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to touch it right then. Afraid she would turn away from him again, he kept still. "What? You never wondered about that?" she asked in a frosty voice. "How do you think a seventeen year old boy becomes the Kazekage, even though a third of the village hates him for the monster he used to be, and probably another third believes he is a monster still… just biding his time before he can devour them all?"

"What?" Shikamaru asked stunned. "That's idiotic! Don't they know he died when the One Tails was removed?"

"The way they see it, if returning from the dead isn't a sign of demonic possession… what is?" she said with a harsh chuckle. "Gaara was chosen to lead the Hidden Sand for three reasons. One, he has the blood of the previous Kazekage in his veins, and my people are nothing if not sticklers for tradition. Two, everyone could see that war was brewing and what better person to lead the charge into battle than a jinchuriki? He'd make a great meat shield to hide behind! And three, the village elders quietly decided that he would be an excellent candidate to be a 'transitional' leader, because nobody would give a shit when he was finally disposed of."

He felt himself nod. "Okay. Gaara is in an unstable situation. I get that. But…"

Temari gave a snort and rested her head on her legs. "No… you don't. Unstable doesn't even begin to cover it. Against outsiders, we Hidden Sand shinobi present a very unified front, but amongst ourselves, we squabble and fight and jockey for power… and have no reservations using a knife or poison to get our way." She shook her head. "I've tried warning Gaara time and time again, but his incredible power, is only matched by his incredible naïveté. He actually buys into this whole idiotic dream of Naruto's that there will one day be peace in the shinobi world. He wakes up every morning telling himself that if he tries his best, and believes with all his might that everyone will look up to him and respect him." She shook her head. "He's so blinded by his faith in humanity; he refuses to see how all the other clans are circling like buzzards above him. The number of conspiracies against him right now is mind boggling… and he still thinks he has a chance!"

Temari sighed and made a frustrated gesture to the celling. "Add a complication like this one into the mix and the situation would be completely out of his control! Gods only know what he'd say or do! He'd probably just stand there and babble something about trying to build alliances between villages." She exhaled sharply. "The other Suna Clans would have a ball though. The Council and the Elders could call my loyalty into question. They'd call for hearings; maybe they'd even dare to put me on trial for treason… What actions would the Kazekage take then? Could Gaara survive a scandal like that? Would his plummeting popularity convince some calculating elder that it was time to look into a new Kazekage? I don't know… But I do know it would be bad for my clan… and for the Hidden Sand."

There was a long silence from Shikamaru as he tried to find a glimmer of hope in the sour leaden ball that was sinking in his stomach. "Okay then... We'll keep this a secret. Our secret. In the meantime I'll talk to the Hokage, see if I can get an appointment as a courier or an ambassador to Suna or something. It's not… ideal, but we'll still be able to see each other every once in a while... right?"

* * *

Temari closed her eyes and shook her head. "That idealistic bastard," she thought to herself. Fuck! She really screwed things up... Why did she send him out to the bathroom? She should have known better... She should have known that a Leaf Shinobi wouldn't understand what the problem was... What the hell came over her?

"I mean, it will be a drag," he was saying, "But it will have its good points too… At least this way, you won't have to meet my mother."

"Shikamaru… Stop. Just… be quiet and listen." She took a deep breath and her voice grew tight. She was going to have to tell him everything… she could see no other way to make him comprehend. "My little… situation… with Gorou… That had repercussions far beyond my feelings being hurt. When my Father found out he had Gorou transferred to a small outpost on the border of the Land of Stone. He was assigned twice daily patrols in sector that suffered the most frequent, violent raids… and he was killed in an ambush two weeks after his tour began."

Shikamaru slipped a little closer to her. "That wasn't your fault Temari…" he started, trying to put an arm around her.

She jerked away. "It was my fault! I was the one who was acting improperly! I was the one who was weak and hard the urge for a little human company! I was so pathetic and feeling so alone that I jumped into the arms of the first jerk who gave me the time of day! Gorou's clan blamed me! The Council blamed me! All of Suna looked at me and wondered what sort of girl I was!"

"It still wasn't your fault." Shikamaru insisted. "Gorou shouldn't have led you…"

"Stop saying it isn't my fault!" Temari didn't want to hear it. "I don't know why I ever expected you could understand… No boy would understand! Does anyone ever call a boy a slut for admitting he has a heart and acting on it? No! Does anyone ever insist on checking if a boy is a virgin on his wedding night? No! No one expects a boy to be locked up in his parent's house, sitting patiently while his parents interview suitor after suitor, trying to pick out the one that would best support their clan's interests… I know how a proper Suna kunoichi is expected to behave… I've known it since I was a little girl!" She folded her arms around herself. "My Father… the Kazekage… he had to make amends for my… lapse of judgments. Gorou came from the farming clan in Hidden Sand, the Green Sand… and what they demanded… was land… More arable land to increase their holdings, increase their production, increase their power base in the Land of Wind." She looked up. "My country is one of deserts and mountains… If we wanted more farmland, we'd have to conquer it."

"And so, at the Green Sand clan's urging, The Kazekage allied himself with the Hidden Sound village and went to war with the Hidden Leaf, all to remunerate his daughter's foolishness." She looked up at Shikamaru and quickly looked away. She couldn't read his expression, but is she was in his shoes, she knew she would be very angry. "My father was intending for Gorou's death to be an object lesson to anyone who thought he could lay hands on his daughter… But Orochimaru… he had… other aspects to the plan that he didn't quite share during the strategy meetings"

Temari paused, and stared at her hands until they stopped trembling. "When my father died, it ended up being much bigger lesson… for me... the smallest actions can have long reaching consequences."

Temari took a deep breath. "It wasn't a big enough lesson it seems… I just made the same mistake a second time."

Shikamaru swallowed. She heard it echo loudly in the tent. "That attack on Konoha was… years ago. Times have changed. People change. I know Gaara. He's not the vindictive person he once was… Even if you did make a… a… 'mistake' Temari he won't…"

"You're right… Gaara won't!" Temari snapped angrily. "He's not my father! He won't do anything… which is worse! He'll have no idea what the population expects him to do, and that's the largest part of the problem. He doesn't understand other people… he never has. " Temari shook her head. "My little brother needs every little edge he can get in order to keep holding on to his position." She met his eyes and quickly looked away. "I share the same blood as Gaara... being the only woman in his family, I can... provide the hope of an inter clan alliance... I can keep some of those conspirators in the shadows for a little while longer if they think they have the prospect of ascending to power in a… more legitimate way."

There was a long pause. She shut her eyes. There had been enough talking and trying to explain, she needed to end this and move on to the bigger problems. "Look Shikamaru... I... This was... very nice... But even under the best of circumstances... even if Gaara hadn't seen you… this was only going to be a one-time thing... The answer to your question is no. It's too damaging to my village. No... There was never any chance we could see each other... ever."

She felt the change through her entire body. Moments ago she was warm, smiling, flirting even. Now she was back to being hard and unyielding. Piece by piece her armor was slowly covering her up again. The mattress vibrated as Shikamaru slowly forced himself up from the cot. "So... That's it?" He asked in a wounded tone, gently taking her hand. "Whatever happened here tonight... between us… it's gone? Vanished? I'm just supposed to pretend it never happened?"

Temari finally opened her eyes. Her hurt and guilt were forcefully locked away behind a frozen sheet of ice… but that didn't mean her emotions sat there calmly. "No!" She wanted to yell at the top of her lungs. "I want you to remember! I'm going to be thinking about this night for years to come! I wish I could be with you, but I've lost my father and I can't afford to lose my brother too!"

But that would only encourage him more. And if he kept pestering her about it, Gods only know what she would end up agreeing to in a moment of weakness. She gave him the only consolation she could reasonably afford to and hope he would get the hint. "A shinobi must learn to suppress their emotions... and do their duty."

"Fine," said Shikamaru in a controlled voice. "So… what happens now?"

He didn't pick up on her underlying message. She didn't really expect he would. He was too upset.

Perhaps it was for the best. It would be easier this way.

At any rate, she had bigger problems to concern herself with. Temari stood up, sheet wrapped tightly around her, all the seductiveness gone. "Now… you leave. I'll have to go to the Kazekage and beg forgiveness for my poor judgment. Hopefully we can come up with some sort of damage control plan before we get back to Suna and all hell breaks loose."


	7. Chapter 7

Shikamaru walked slowly back to the Konoha side of the camp. The encampment was just starting to stir. He could smell the fires going in the huge central mess tent. Groups of hung-over shinobi were staggering about, brought back to life by the scent of food and coffee. A small handful of the allied forces were trying to surreptitiously make their way back to their own tents after a night of dubious celebration. Some were very careful not to make eye contact with anyone who walked by them... others were all smiles and swagger.

Shikamaru glanced up at both types as they wandered by. A tsunami of jealousy washed over him and he slowed even further. "I am such a fucking moron," he grumbled to himself. "Why did I have to go and fall head over heels for her...? What a fucking drag." He almost felt like punching something, but that wasn't his style.

Gods damnit! This wasn't how it was supposed to go! He was the logical one! The smart one! She came right out and told him that she didn't want anything more to do with him. She said it right to his face; a one night stand was all he was good for! He shouldn't be moping about, pining after her like this! It was waste of time!

It also hurt like hell.

The anger eventually passed, leaving him adrift in a desolate marsh of dreariness. He couldn't walk anymore. He needed to sit down.

There was a pile of empty barrels in back of the main mess tent. He watched the quartermasters and cooks bustle about with steaming trays and coffee urns. "Hurry it up!" some voice of authority bellowed. "They're going so start arriving soon! Do you want to be the one to tell some hungover jonin that he has to wait for his breakfast?"

There was a cough from inside his head. He found little Shikamaru and little Temari standing quietly by the shogi board, holding hands. Shikamaru couldn't help it, he glared at the pair of them. "Some help you were!" he grumbled.

The two tiny chess players, gave him a small shrug and sat down at the shogi board. He pointed at the pair of them. "The game is over! It's done!" Ignoring him, little Shikamaru moved his king forward a space. "Everything may have worked out just fine for you... but reality... Heh, that's quite different. Things don't always turn out the way you see them happening in your head!" he growled.

The shogi playing Temari gave him a sympathetic glance. She dug through her captured pieces and dropped a knight on the board.

"_Sensei, sensei, sensei," my student sighed to me reproachfully, "why do you keep doing this to yourself...? Clearly the princess of the Land of Trees does not feel for you the way you feel for her... This is the fifth time she has told you to leave her in peace."_

_I took the bag of ice from his hands and placed it on my swelling jaw. "Is that what you saw old chum?" I muttered with cheerful pain. "You are such the novice when it comes to affairs of the heart."_

"_She commanded you to leave her presence and when you refused, she set her bodyguard on you!" My apprentice eyed me cautiously. "I think he may have hit you on the head one time too many."_

_I sighed and worked my jaw. "She said __her father__ commanded that she not see me again. She said __her father__ would kill me if I spoke to her again. She said if I would not leave for my own safety, she would make me leave... I saw a girl trying to protect someone she cared for in the only way she knew how."_

_My student was silent for a long time. Finally he shook his head. "It doesn't make a difference sensei. She will not be with you either way."_

_I ruffled his hair. "Ah... but it does make a difference my son. If she had flat out refused me that would be one thing. It would only be honorable and proper to move on... But in this situation, honor demands that I be her champion."_

"_Her... champion?"_

_I started to grin and instantly regretted it. My face was aching all over. "Her champion... You know, like a knight, Sworn to defend her, protect her, right wrongs for her... and love her from afar. A perfect love."_

_My student raised his eyebrows skeptically, "Love her from afar? A perfect love? Sensei... does this mean you will be giving up... on your adventures?"_

"_Of course not!" I insisted, hurt. "I am a man of action! I will continue to fight evil in all its forms wherever it can be found! Her name will be a battle cry on my lips! I charge forth into the fray and all of history shall know that I did it all for…"_

"_Actually, I was referring to the milkmaid," muttered my beloved student._

"_Well, that was..."_

"_And the owner of that onsen," he continued._

"_Yes, but you see..."_

"_And then there was that shepherdess... that random woman in that hotel... The Daimyo's chambermaid... the Grand Vizier's daughter you seduced that time to get us out of prison... the four members of the 'black widow' assassination squad... and then there was the..."_

"_All right all right!" I yelled holding up my hands. "I get your point!"_

Shikamaru did get the point. It was a stupid, irrational, impetuous thing to try... but maybe... just maybe it was worth it to play the knight... one more time. The little Temari in his head winked at him.

There was the repeated clatter of tiles in his head. This close to the endgame, there weren't many moves left he could try. He needed something big... big and showy and clever. He pressed each fingertip and thumb together. The clacking of tiles grew even more frenzied.

"Hey Jin! What's taking so long! Hurry up and get the damn coffee in before the Suna shinobi arrive! I swear those guys drink the stuff like it was water!" the authoritative voice shouted again.

Shikamaru smiled.

By the time Jin got around to bringing the urns inside the mess tent, he didn't notice one of them was missing.

* * *

Temari knew she was taking forever to get herself ready. She felt like shit. She hadn't gotten enough sleep. That had to be it. That had to explain the hollow void she felt just beneath her ribcage. A little thing like this shouldn't be bothering her. She had her duty, she had her honor... that was all she needed.

Shikamaru had slunk away from her, just like she knew he would. After all, as... nice… as he was, he was at heart a coward. Really, no matter how she looked at it, this was the best decision. It was the logical approach.

I mean... suppose they did attempt some sort of relationship? Forgetting that they came from different villages, the politics that made it impossible, their disparity in social status, and the contrast in their personalities, there was still no guarantee it would work.

This was just a dream, an attack of momentary insanity. Whatever she had felt for him, it would go away with time.

Temari sighed. This might have been the biggest mistake she ever made. What was she thinking... getting... attached to him like that? She should be ashamed of herself.

Her fingers were trembling as she pulled back her hair into the four tight ponytails. It was for the best. It had to be for the best. She stared at herself in the mirror. See? It wasn't that hard. Just hide all your emotions away and do your duty. Her face was perfectly calm and collected. No matter how much that small aching kernel in her chest beseeched her to scream and yell and sob that Shikamaru had left.

He had just gotten up and walked away.

She wasn't expecting anything else. She certainly wasn't expecting him to argue, to beg, to woo her with sweet words, to offer to fight for her, to throw caution to the wind and declare his undying love for her... That would have been... troublesome.

She quickly pressed her fingers to her eyes and squeezed hard. Damn! She must be having allergies to something around here. There was absolutely no other reason why they should be stinging.

She finished getting ready, made a few small adjustments to her kimono, and checked herself one last time in the mirror. However, a careful observer would have noticed that she avoided her reflection's eyes. The tent flap swung closed behind her.

A steaming cup was thrust in her face. "Here," called a bored voice. "I saved the last one for you. What were you doing in there? You took forever."

Temari automatically took the cup. "What are you doing here?" she tried to ask imperiously. It was hard to do. The aroma of the dark roast was tickling her nostrils.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Bringing you coffee," he said innocently. "Come on, we have to get moving... Gaara is already up and headed off to the mess tent about half an hour ago. If we hurry we can catch him."

There was no anger at him, just a pleasant surprise that he was there. Of course there was no way she was going to tell him that. She took a sip from the steaming mug in her hands. It was the good stuff, thick and dark. That one taste scrubbed the sleep from her brain with steel wool. "We? What's this 'we' business? I told you to go back to your side of the camp."

"Yeah... well... something came up. I'm coming with you to talk to Gaara."

Temari shook her head. "No... not going to happen. If you know what's good for you you'll stay away..." She took another sip of the coffee, "but thank you for the coffee, where did you get it?"

"I stole it." He nudged an empty urn further behind her tent with his foot. "Look... Temari, you don't have a choice here. I am going with you when you see Gaara."

She narrowed her eyes and took another drink. Why was he getting all forceful? That wasn't like him. "I don't think you understand what I just said... Not going to happen." She turned and walked away from him. While it was… interesting to see this side of him, her choice had been made. She couldn't afford to make any more mistakes.

Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag," she heard him mutter sourly. In an instant her feet froze.

She was caught in the shadow imitation jutsu. "I'm going to kill you," she growled, wishing she could turn her head to glare at him.

"Maybe later," he said lackadaisically. "Right now we have a meeting to get to." He started to run, and tied to him with his shadow, her feet followed.

* * *

He was worried their little discussion outside her tent had taken too long. He was hoping to talk to Gaara in a very public location; This plan of his wouldn't work as well if there weren't plenty of witnesses. Thankfully the Kazekage was still seated with Kankuro at a small private table in the mess hall.

Shikamaru slowed down as he and Temari entered. He wanted to make it look like they were moving more naturally, to call less attention to themselves. "You are so dead, Nara," Temari hissed beside him. "I'm going to learn the Edo Tensei jutsu just so I can have the pleasure of killing you over and over again for all eternity!"

"That sounds like it would be a lot of unnecessary bother," Shikamaru muttered, sidestepping a still drunk Hidden Stone shinobi.

"Believe me, it'll be worth every second!" she spat. "What the hell are you thinking?"

It was tricky to weave the pair of them through the milling shinobi without bumping into anyone, but luck was with him. It probably didn't hurt that Temari was looking like she was going to rip out someone's heart with her teeth at the slightest provocation. "I'm thinking that I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and potentially very noble."

"What?" asked Temari. Her voice was a snarl, but there was an edge of curiosity to it.

Shikamaru sighed. "I asked myself... If I were Temari no Sabaku... what would I want most in the world? It was tricky at first; I mean you're so different from the typical girl." The air promptly dropped ten degrees, "And that's a good thing!" Shikamaru hastily added. "It's what makes you so unique, so adorable!"

"Are you patronizing me?"

"Only slightly. I mean… it was obvious that flowers and chocolates were right out. But then I remembered what you said, about honor and duty and how I wouldn't understand because I wasn't a woman... and I think I may have come up with a little something."

Kankuro had his nose buried in a tray covered with food, but Gaara looked up as they approached. "Temari," he acknowledged, "I was wondering if you were going to join us for breakfast. Shikamaru, it is nice to see you again this morning."

Kankuro looked up, chewing. "Again?" he asked quizzically through a mouthful of food.

Shikamaru nodded. "I spent the night with your sister."

There was a brief pause as Gaara's sand retreated from blocking the mouthful of rice Kankuro had sprayed across the table. "Explain," said Gaara in a cool voice.

"Well it's quite simple Kazekage. We talked, we danced, we talked some more... We played lots of shogi long into the night... She beat me twice, you know, her game is quite good... anyway, by the time we realized what time it was... It was morning." He turned and gave Temari a shy look. "It was about then I... Well... I must confess, I told your sister of my fondness for her." Shikamaru looked up at the faces surrounding him. Gaara was puzzled, Kankuro was still trying to cough up rice, and Temari... Well Temari was standing there... fuming. She was so furious she didn't even realize he had dropped the shadow imitation jutsu during his little speech. "You see… I've fallen in love with Temari no Sabaku."

* * *

"He's lying." Temari thought to herself. "I can't believe that this was his big plan. We spent all night playing shogi? It's so obvious he's lying! He's an idiot, and no one will ever believe him." Half of her viewed the conversation with cold logical precision, while the other half noticed the sudden ominous drop in background conversation. There was an audience here, and Shikamaru was playing up to it. "He's lying... Anyone can see it, it's written all over his face and... wait... What?!"

"He... loves me?" He wasn't lying. Her body may have stayed statue still, but Temari's heart was in free fall.

Shikamaru dropped into a very formal stance, as close to parade rest as she had ever seen him, and nodded to her. "Kazekage, I beseech you, do not think ill of Temari-san. Your sister is a shinobi of the highest honor. She is blameless in this... she did not lead me on in word or deed. In fact when I confessed to her, she promptly told me of the impossibility of her situation, all the politics that surrounded her, and indeed, the trouble I had carelessly and thoughtlessly placed this delicate desert bloom in by remaining in her company for far too long."

She watched as Gaara and Kankuro mouthed the words 'delicate desert bloom' while glancing at her incredulously. Shikamaru continued, "I have come before you, Kazegage-sama, to beg pardon for any ill I may have inadvertently caused. I swear on my honor as a shinobi that nothing passed between us but words. I beg your forgiveness." He bowed, not his usual sloppy tired bow, but a crisp, sharp bend at the waist. Shikamaru whipped a folded page out of his pocket and held it across the table with two hands. "Please accept this as a small restitution for any harm I may have done to you and your political standing." His little speech over, Shikamaru promptly turned on his heel and walked to the far corner of the mess hall. There was a handful of chuckles and one or two outright guffaws as he moved past the other tables, looking neither left nor right.

The three sand siblings watched him go and then quickly turned to each other. Kankuro was the first to recover. "Temari's got a boyfriend!" he muttered in wonder. "You know, I always suspected that was why he was following you around everywhere."

"Shut up!" She fell down into her seat heavily, not daring to look behind her. She could feel every eye in the place on her and could hear a slow whispering start up. That weasly little bastard. What the hell did he think he was doing? Embarrassing her like this? She was so going to… to… He loved her?

"Seriously though, what the hell did you do to him?" Kankuro asked craning his neck to watch Shikamaru wander off. "I mean, I've only met the guy a couple of times... He seemed okay... a little gloomy maybe... but that's no excuse to… to treat him like that!"

Temari narrowed her eyes. "Treat him like what? You make it sound like this is my fault."

"Duh! Look at him!" Kankuro gestured with one hand. "The poor guy's soul is crushed! I don't know what you said to him but, man…" he shuddered.

Wait… Kankuro fell for this fabrication of Shikamaru's? This time she did turn. Shikamaru was stiffly marching to a table in the Konoha section. One of his teammates, the blonde one, helped him sit down and was making sympathetic cooing noises over him. Several other kunoichi were casting cold glances in her direction and then turning to give him appraising looks. "I mean you could have at least kissed him or something," Kankuro said starting back into his food.

Temari paused. While she had a quick inner debate between keeping a secret and proving Kankuro wrong, there was the rustle of paper as Gaara unfolded the letter Shikamaru handed to him and scanned it's contents. "I'll have you know, I did kiss him!" Temari hissed, leaning forward so only her brothers could hear.

Kankuro's shock slowly faded into skepticism. "Yeah, right," he chuckled, continuing to eat. "Good one Sis."

"I did!"

Kankuro wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Look, Temari... I'm a guy... I know from experience what guys look like after they make out with a chick they have the hots for... Let me give you a hint... They don't look like their puppy just died."

"You don't believe me... why?" she asked, her voice taking on a dangerous edge.

Kankuro sniffed. "Gee... I don't know... Maybe it's you track record with guys in general? Maybe because I was up half the night fielding complaints from the Tsuchikage because someone threatened to castrate his grandnephew? I had to pass on my little get together with that Hidden Cloud kunoichi, thank you very much."

"Oh boo-hoo-hoo. My heart bleeds for you."

Kankuro pointed a finger. "See? This is why I have so much trouble believing you! You have no romance in your soul!"

"I have plenty of romance in me!" Temari said, digging her nails into her palms. "Unlike you, I can't afford to let it out!"

"Both of you... be quiet." said Gaara softly. "We need to act on this."

"Act on what?" asked Temari, switching back to all business.

"Shikamaru Nara, who you may or may not have kissed, has handed us a very interesting assessment of the current political sentiment in Suna. Of primary interest is the impending coup d'etat that he predicts will occur within the next three to five weeks." The sheet of paper was quickly surrounded by three bowed heads.

It was an untitled bulleted list in a scrawled hand. The first half of it was what would be classic intelligence. The elder of the Dancing Sand fraction was having an affair with the husband of the Golden Sand's mercantile conglomerate. Elements of the Green Sand's agricultural combine were smuggling roughly ten percent of the gems mined from the Yakuto mine out in coffee bean shipments. Typical aspects of the darker side of human nature, like lust and greed that every leader takes advantage of to cajole things along… prime blackmail material that is the grease which keeps government running.

The list got interesting when it mentioned the manufactured water shortage the Blue Sand group had scheduled just as the Kazekage was due to return to the village. The second half of the sheet of paper pulled together the previously listed pieces of intelligence, like the budding alliance between the Blue and Black Sand, the manipulated Guard schedules, the sudden redeployment of Black Sand shinobi away from the front lines in the current conflict. The last line written on the sheet said. "In conclusion, due to the buildup of hostile actions, and increasing boldness of the conspirators, I predict that you will have civil unrest within the next three to five weeks." It was underlined twice.

Gaara looked up at Temari. "What do you make of this estimate?"

Temari focused on the paper. "I don't know where he got this, but if all the information is accurate, it's a good one."

"Yeah, but can we trust your little boyfriend over there?" grumbled Kankuro.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Temari growled back.

"Would you object to him being your boyfriend?" Gaara asked calmly.

Temari felt her cheeks flush. "E-Excuse me?"

Gaara sighed and tapped the sheet of paper. "You yourself just admitted that Shikamaru Nara has just handed us an exemplary intelligence analysis. From having served with him, I can attest that his strategic reasoning is unparalleled." He fixed that flat stare of his on Temari. "You are always telling me I must be more aware of the conspiracies in Suna and the dangers to my government. If this is the case, then it would be wise for me to surround myself with shinobi like him… shinobi that will help me to carry the Hidden Sand village into this new era of peace, prosperity and cooperation all the while maintaining a semblance of order. Given this assessment, I am sorely tempted to see if he could be persuaded into helping us further." Gaara pursed his lips and stared at the ceiling of the mess tent for a second or two. "If I ask Tsunade-sama for him to be temporarily assigned to my staff, I am sure that she will not object… as long as Shikamaru himself agrees to the mission." Garra looked over to where Shikamaru was sulking and then back at Temari. "He has openly proclaimed his feelings towards you. I wonder if you would be willing to… provide an additional incentive."

There was a moment of blinding epiphany, where the mystery of Shikamaru's actions suddenly fell into place. "That little bastard!" she snarled. "I'll kill him for this!"

Gaara frowned at her. "Need I remind you that there is a treaty…"

Temari lost it. "Gaara no Sabaku! I am your older sister! I was the one who changed your poopy diapers. I was the one who gave you your baths! I was the one who spanked you that one time you got into Aunt Chiyo's cat's litter box. Your sand didn't stop me then and it sure as hell won't stop me now! You may be my Kazekage and I will gladly give my life for yours, but by the Gods, you will stop acting like I'm some servant here to clean up your every mess, or some bargaining chip you can just cash in for any opportunity, and start treating me with some respect or I will bend you over my knee right here in this very mess hall!" She rose from the table, glaring at him. "Now… if you'll excuse me Kazekage-sama, I have to tear that goddamn Leaf shinobi a brand new asshole!" She whirled and started to stalk away.

"Wow... She's really upset," muttered Kankuro. "I haven't seen Temari this mad since…" A realization slowly grew on Kankuro's face. "Huh… I wonder if she secretly does like him." He grinned and elbowed Gaara. "Hey, do you think 'playing shogi' is a euphemism for anything?"

He suddenly found Temari centimeters away from his nose. "Shut your goddamned mouth," she said icily. "If I hear one more snide comment out of you, I'll tell everybody about what I saw you and Tiger Lily doing when you were thirteen." She stormed away.

Gaara looked at his older brother, suddenly pale under his makeup. "Wasn't Tiger Lily the first puppet you made that looked like a girl?"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" hissed Kankuro.

* * *

Ino sat next to Shikamaru muttering kind words. The Yamanaka kunoichi had seen his little performance… hell everyone had... That was the whole point of it.

Any self-respecting man who had just spent the night with a goddess like Temari would be all swagger and smiles. Instead, he had just come forth and made the most simpering apologetic speech he could. He looked like a complete loser. Spending all night with a hot woman… playing shogi? Every red blooded young man in the mess tent was having a good laugh at his expense. In a few hours, this story would be all over the Allied camp. It would be so amusing that everyone would want to hear and believe it... and pass it on to their friends. It would be troublesome to deal with it later... But that was the point, it would be troublesome for him... not her.

There was only one small issue that he happened to overlook - now every kunoichi in the place was looking at him like he was an abandoned kitten lost in the rain... they all wanted to pick him up and cuddle him. He glanced up at the table where Temari and her brothers were whispering. Well, almost every kunoichi.

Temari and her brothers were having a long conversation. It got even more intense when they opened up his letter, although he was expecting that part.

"... and how come you never said you could dance like that?" Ino babbled on. "I never would have thought you knew anything like that. it was so... so... sensuous!"

"Thanks," he replied, watching Temari closely. Any second now, there would be the moment of truth.

"I don't mind telling you Shikamaru... It made me see you in a whole new light; you looked so... so..." Ino saw he wasn't paying any attention and followed his gaze back to where he was watching Temari. "Aw... look... Just forget about her."

"Excuse me?" asked Shikamaru

"I know you don't want to hear this right now... But take it from someone who's mastered the hard fall / hard crash. If she can't see you for the amazing person that you are... you're best just moving on." Ino gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Things will be okay... there are other fish in the sea."

There was a polite cough. A Hidden Mist kunoichi with her flack vest unzipped halfway down her chest smiled a mouth of gleaming teeth at him. "Hello! I saw the way you were dancing last night, and anyway, I was just wondering if you would be willing to teach me..."

Temari's angry bellow turned every head in the mess tent. There was a clatter of falling trays as her projected wrath cleared various shinobi out of her way like some titanic fist. The Hidden Mist kunoichi gave Shikamaru a look of sympathy before evaporating back into the awestruck crowd.

With boots of dread, Temari trod through the now cemetery silent mess tent and stopped in front of his table, her eyes boring into his. "I need to talk to Shikamaru Nara... alone," she said through gritted teeth.

Ino set her jaw and turned to confront her. "Shikamaru doesn't need to..."

"Ino," Shikamaru said quietly, "thanks, but I can handle it." He waited until all the surrounding watchers were a polite distance away, pointedly staring at some who were slow on the uptake, before motioning to the other side of the bench with one hand.

Now came the delicate part. He had to play out every move carefully if he wanted this to work. And he did want it to work. Inside his head Little Shikamaru and Little Temari gave him a wave and a nod.

Temari gave up looking at him and instead stared at some point above his left shoulder. She was chewing on her lip. "This was all some plan of yours, wasn't it?" Her bishop moved putting his king in check. A strong opening attack. She was hurt and striking out.

"Of course it was a plan of mine," he replied softly. "But I didn't think you'd mind it that much." He slid his king down the board avoiding capture.

"Did you think you were doing me some sort of favor?" Again check.

"I did do you a favor," Shikamaru insisted, once more he moved his king further down the board, towards her territory. He was escaping check, but at the same time, making himself more and more vulnerable. "I was just trying to help."

An icy glare greeted him; she didn't like that. "So... You too huh?" she shook her head slightly. "I thought you were different."

Shikamaru paused. Okay, he needed to assess the field of play before he continued. "Um, can I ask exactly what we're talking about? I have the feeling it might be two different things."

Temari snorted and stuck her nose in the air. "Mister 'I can think two hundred moves ahead' doesn't know what I'm talking about? Your plan... The Kazekage is asking me if I'm willing to seduce you so he can have your brainpower on his side." She turned her head sharply to one side. "You think you've won haven't you? You took advantage of everything I told you about Gaara and my village. You're just trying to win me... You didn't even think to ask… just like everyone else." Her gold and silver generals tightened their defensive formation around her king.

Shikamaru sighed. He had given fair odds of her reacting this way. He moved up his dragon and stopped it next to her gold general, a purely sacrificial move. "If you want me to help Gaara, then all you need to do is say so... If you don't want me to help Gaara, then all you need to do is say so. This isn't about what I want, or what Gaara wants... It's about what you want Temari."

He waited for a response, but she just kept staring away from him. He slid his promoted bishop into a sacrificial spot next to her pawn fence. "This is all about you Temari," he said quietly. "I'm guessing you're not used to hearing this sort of thing... But I don't want to see you get hurt. Not because I don't think you're strong, you're one of the toughest shinobi I know... I don't want to see you get hurt because..." He took deep breath, one by one he moved all his remaining shogi pieces into spots where they could be easily captured. Only his king was left on its slow march forward. "Because I love you."

Her eyes flicked towards him as he said it, so he decided to repeat it. "I love you. You're hard, and you're cruel sometimes but you're also funny and sweet, and... I think we just… work well together. Your whole life is centered around duty and honor, and that's great, but sometimes you need to let stuff go."

Shikamaru gave her a small smile and moved his king forward another step. "Sometimes I need a royal kick in the pants. You give me that kick in the ass. I decided I'm going to help you. I just want to do this for you. I want to do this with you. I just want you to be happy."

He took a deep breath and the words came tumbling out. "You were all worked up over the social / political implications about... what we did? Well, I fixed it for you. Now I'm just some shogi playing loser mooning over a woman who is far out of his league. My reputation is nothing compared to the safety of your brother and your village. You can't have your own life because you need to spend yours taking care of your little brother? I'll help you bolster him up enough so that he can manage his village on his own... we'll make him the best Kazekage your village has ever seen! All those idiots who want him dead will be forced to grit their teeth and sing his praises!"

Shikamaru paused and swallowed. "If you're feeling lonely, like no one's your friend... Well, I can help with that too... I mean, I won't lie, I'm really hoping that you'll decide I'm more than just a friend...but if not... It'll be a drag, but I'll get over it... eventually." His king clicked the final few squares before stopping, open, vulnerable.

He sat there, waiting for her response. He had to admit, it was one of the most nerve wracking things he had ever done.

Temari opened her mouth a few times before sound came out. "Why would you… do this for me?"

Shikamaru leaned forward. Good… she was listening. "Because you need some happiness in your life? You're a great dancer? The way you smile when you're asleep... because I love you? I don't know, take your pick."

"Everyone says I'm not an easy person to get along with," she said hesitantly. Slowly her silver general slid left, revealing her king inside her defensive castle.

Shikamaru grinned. "Neither am I... just ask my mother." His king slid a step forward approaching the castle.

"I'd have to meet your mother first, in order for that to happen. Are you sure you'd want that?" Her king took a step towards his.

Shikamaru shrugged and reached out for her hand. "I'll make sure I have a whole platoon of medical-nin standing by. It'll be fine." His king slid forward another space.

She didn't pull her hand away. Shikamaru felt an incredible lightness in his chest. With her free hand Temari rubbed quickly at her eyes. He thought he saw just the hint of a smile. "How did you get all that information about Suna anyway?" she asked giving his fingers a squeeze.

He shrugged, but in a self-satisfied way. "I pretended to work for the mess hall and wandered around the Suna side of camp with a coffee urn, handing coffee out to anyone who asked… It's amazing what your countrymen will say out loud before they get that first cup of coffee in the morning."

Her smile flashed by quickly. "Clever."

"A trait I am occasionally known for," Shikamaru said smugly.

"Can you do it?" she asked him quietly. "Can you really guarantee that Gaara remains the Kazekage?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Nothing is for certain… The plan I've come up with has an eighty percent chance of success… I can tell it to you now if you want… you won't even have to take me back to Suna with you." She raised an eyebrow at him. Shikamaru sighed; she could read him so well. "Of course if do happen to be right there to make modifications to the plan on the fly, the chance of it working goes up to about ninety five percent."

She nodded. "Gaara's enemies… They will try to kill you."

Shikamaru smirked. "That's the least of my worries… They won't have the cruelest kunoichi in the world watching their back."

Temari flashed him a quick smile, and then looked down at the table top. After a very long pause, she took a deep breath and nodded her head. "Okay."

"Okay what?"

"Okay... I guess I can stand to have you hanging around for a little bit longer." There was a long pause while she smiled softly at him. Suddenly there was a hungry edge to her grin. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in close.

Her kiss took his breath away.

"What... What that for?" he sputtered when they came up for air, his lips numb.

"Well... I am supposed to be seducing you away to help the Kazekage now aren't I? I might as well take advantage of it… besides; this gives me a chance to prove to Kankuro once and for all that I actually do have some romance in me." She leaned in to kiss him one more time. "Oh... one last thing... If you tell anyone I said this, I'll deny it... but, I think… I might love you too."

There was a final clack of the shogi pieces. The two kings sat there nose to nose. A double mate. No one wins, no one loses.

There were a few surprised murmurs and gasps at this second kiss. There was even the catcall of "Get a room!" Neither one of them was listening. They were lost in their own little world.

Temari gave him a small private smile and then yanked him upward. "Alright that's enough sniveling!" she barked like a drill sergeant. "Get moving! We've got work to do!"

"Women... what a drag," Shikamaru grumbled, but in a happy way. "Even when you go to so much trouble to make sure everything comes out perfectly even, they still have to pretend like they have the upper hand."


	8. Chapter 8

**Epilogue:**

Taketsu of the Black Sand lay in his hole, the opening carefully screened with a camouflaged blanket, and waited for the targets who had dishonored his clan and the Hidden Sand Village. The small select group of elders had made it quite clear that neither the Leaf shinobi nor the kunoichi who had so disgraced her village and her station should be left alive.

He could hear them approach. They brought with them a small hand cart with a squeaky wheel piled high with goods. They were also having a very loud argument.

"I keep telling you, we're lost," the woman said sharply.

"We are not lost! It's impossible to miss the Land of Fire. All we have to do is head east!"

"Then why haven't we gotten there yet?"

"Gee I don't know... Could it have something to do with the fact that you had to buy half of the Suna marketplace as a gift for my mother? Troublesome woman!"

"I'll have you know that first impressions are very important! I wouldn't dream of meeting someone for the first time without the proper gift!" There was a pause as the wheel squeaked closer. "We're definitely lost aren't we?" There was a shout, the signal to trip the ambush. Taketsu and all his clansmen rushed out of their hiding places and surrounded the couple. "Oh good," said the woman brightly, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Maybe we can ask them for directions?"

"I think that would be a terrible idea," said the man.

The woman tossed her four blonde ponytails in an annoyed way. "What is it with men and asking for directions?" She unclipped a huge battle fan from her back.

* * *

Shikamaru ignored Temari and stepped forward hands raised. "Hello there," he said as cheerfully as he could in the circumstances. "I don't suppose that there's any chance of you letting us pass? I mean I know there are quite a few of you, but feel it only fair to warn you, I'm really quite a brilliant tactician. I'm sure I could find some way to defeat you all without too many of you getting hurt... eventually... but the thing is... Temari here, well, despite her amazingly good looks, she's not very patient and really quite good at killing people... If I take too long she's sure to take out at least four of you."

"Four? Hah!" sneered Temari. "I could gut seven of them in the time it would take you to weave a hand sign!"

"Seven? Really? Well aren't you feeling feisty today! Must be all the fresh air." Shikamaru turned and smiled at the ambushers. "What do you say gentlemen?"

There was a scream of "Get them!" and the enemy shinobi charged. As he used his shadow sewing jutsu to snare a platoon of four shinobi, and Temari's wind scythe blew away a trio of shinobi attacking in his blind spot, Shikamaru had the sudden flash of the chessboard in his head. On it sat two kings of green and gold, back to back, protecting each other.

"What are you doing?" Temari yelled at him, cracking her fan over an unlucky shinobi's head. "Pay attention dammit!"

Smiling, he got on with the battle.

_Fin_


End file.
